Hexe Dragon
by sakurademonalchemist
Summary: Some people get invited to the Varia...others sneak in. Rosethorn is a witch who desperately wants to forget who she was when she left England. Where better to make a fresh start than in a group of elite assassins like the Varia? Hexe is going to have her work cut out for her when her secret is discovered...and an unexpected chance for romance blooms.
1. Chapter 1

It was oddly liberating, being a paid assassin. It certainly wasn't the career choice she would have considered growing up.

After the war though... it felt like she was coming home. Too many instincts more or less engraved in her memory and no one really commented on the fact she was a restless sleeper.

She was a 'mook', someone who had yet to earn the right to a proper codename. So long as she did her job and kept her mouth shut, no one would look twice at her. She wondered how the Officers would feel if they ever knew a witch had literally walked right into their group, written herself on the payroll and was employed as a member of the Lightning division.

"Get geared up. We have an assignment," said Darkholm.

She honestly had no idea where the hell the Varia came up with codenames. Some of them were positively ridiculous. On the plus side, she was picking up a lot of languages and was able to subtly cheat using snakes to learn more. Who knew parseltongue was so useful when it came to learning languages?

A few days of speaking with a snake from a random country and she suddenly knew whatever human dialect the snake spent the most time around. She couldn't _speak_ it without a lot of practice, but her mind was starting to naturally filter all the many, many languages spoken around her to "snake" before it switched automatically to English.

Brier Rose, aka Rosethorn as she was known in England, was already prepared for the assignment...unlike the other "Lightning" mooks she never really unpacked, just restocked. Ironically her prompted ability to be present and prepared _on time_ without any whining made her an almost favorite of the Lightning Officer.

The man was a headache, but at least he didn't hate her personally. He was absurdly 'devoted' to the Boss, a man she had only seen in passing.

Boss had the most beautiful deep blood red eyes she had ever seen, and wore feathers as a sort of strange hair accessory, along with a long coon tail. There was a sort of angry, powerful aura about him that reminded her strongly of a territorial dragon about to turn you into charcoal if you pissed him off.

Unlike Riddle, his red eyes didn't make her feel the least bit afraid.

Seeing the eight year old with the genuine crown on his head, she fought the urge to frown. She didn't doubt that the boy was competent... anyone who had the badge of an officer was already blooded.

"Voi! Is everyone here yet?" demanded the loud Rain. Squalo Superbi was usually the one giving out assignments since the Boss was apparently too lazy to do so himself.

Rosethorn adapted the usual blank expression that had become standard when it came to being around the older, more experienced assassins.

Becoming invisible without the use of her cloak was a specialty of hers. Squalo's eyes passed right over her after he registered her patch declaring her a Lightning. From what she could tell of her fellow Lightnings, there seemed to be some sort of really odd bias that all Lightnings would be Stupid to Gryffindor levels and take the hits first, drawing any enemy fire to themselves rather than hit their comrades.

Like a lightning rod for damage, which she found to be very ridiculous, but knew better than to ask why everyone seemed to think a "Lightning" should be loud, boisterous and try to attract all the attention in the room.

Actually she found a lot of weird quirks in the Varia.

Everyone seemed to think Mists were highly untrustworthy simply for existing, Clouds were antisocial, Suns were heavy physical hitters on top of being healers and Storms were hot-headed morons.

Which sounded about as stupid as classifying everyone by what House they were sorted in. Like you couldn't be hardworking _and_ cunning, or intelligent and courageous to the point you'd jump in without a plan first.

Rosethorn accepted the assignment and noted with some annoyance that she was the only Lightning in the group.

Which meant everyone expected her to be "brave to the point of Gryffindor-level Stupidity". Terrific.

"Voi! Lightning, what's your name?" demanded Squalo.

"I haven't been assigned one yet, _sir_ ," she said with a bland expression.

Squalo looked irritated by that.

"Nickname?"

"Hex, sir," she replied dutifully. Asking for the _real_ name of someone in the Varia was way too personal. There was a damn good reason everyone went by codenames.

Nicknames were another matter.

"Hex, then. You're in charge of the Prince brat until the mission is over," said Squalo.

"Ushishishi... you better not slow me down peasant," snickered the Storm officer.

Rosethorn rolled her eyes. Sexist pig... just because she was a female didn't mean she automatically knew how to deal with kids!

" _And you had better not annoy me too much to the point I tan your sorry hide, your_ Highness _,"_ she shot back in Carpathian. Upon learning there was a royal from one of the more isolated magical kingdoms in the Varia, she had looked up which family had that particular crest and promptly bought the language lozenge to learn the native tongue of the area.

If only to keep on the good side of the Prince. Besides, the poor kid likely hadn't heard his native tongue in a long time, having run away so young. She was still trying to get her hands on cookbooks from the area.

There had to be a damn good reason for a _prince_ to run so far from home and end up in a group of bloodthirsty assassins who would eat him alive if he gave an inch.

The kid went almost ramrod straight from pure shock. There was a hint of blood red eyes peering from under his bangs as he stared at her with open interest.

"Ushishishi!"

* * *

Rosethorn stayed close enough to be considered back-up, but allowed the Storm Officer (who's name was Belphegor, apparently) to do his thing without making it look like she considered him anything less than actual Quality just because of his age.

Seeing the surprised and curious look on his face when she rolled her eyes and removed as much blood as possible with a quick wandless spell, she pretended to act as his minder and dragged him to the first gelato shop she could find.

"Shishishi... what's this for peasant?" he asked, amused.

"Because everyone loves ice cream, and you deserve a treat for being able to handle that job on your own without needing me to cover for you," said Rosethorn. She had noticed he liked berries and chocolate, and ordered a chocolate with strawberry for him.

Belphegor's expression was unidentifiable, but he accepted the treat without a word.

"You're a strange peasant."

"I've been called worse," said Rosethorn. She looked at her phone and noticed a call for back-up...apparently the other team had somehow stumbled into trouble and needed help. "Do you want to finish your cone first, or do you want to rescue grown men from a mess they created because of their incompetence? Bear in mind I will blame you for why we took so long."

Belphegor blinked at that.

"You're a Lightning."

"I may be part of the Lightning Squad, but if they need a half-trained 'mook' and a boy not even _nine_ to save their sorry asses, then they deserve whatever they get. If they survive until we get there, then good for them. If anyone asks you can claim we had to take the long route to avoid cops," said Rosethorn without remorse.

Belphegor snickered even more at that.

"I like you, peasant," announced Belphegor. He finished his ice cream and then put on the helmet Rosethorn had acquired for him. She was his ride and back-up, after all. Besides she bought him gelato, spoke his native language (her accent was terrible, but he could forgive that), and didn't treat him like a child that needed to be coddled all the time.

Most of the mooks stuck acting as his ride tended to only see his age or be too terrified to be of any real use.

They got there in time to rescue the other group, though Rosethorn was rather pleased when Belphegor skewered the leader of those idiots for interrupting his "fun". Which basically implied that Belphegor had been "playing" with his target and didn't appreciate having to cut his game short to rescue a bunch of idiots.

On the plus side, thanks to a recommendation from the Prince she finally had a proper codename. It was unoriginal, but at least it was a name.

Hexe. German for "witch".

Oh well... at least the Storm officer seemed to be genuinely fond of her after that mission. Enough so that he openly sought her out when bored and proceeded to help with what he called "a truly terrible accent" when it came to his native language. Belphegor apparently enjoyed being the "teacher" to someone at least ten years older than him who wouldn't take it personally and actually treated him with the appropriate respect for royalty without being condescending about it.

* * *

Hexe was stuck acting as the unofficial secretary of the Boss due to the fact she was behind on her paperwork from a flu. Lussuria, the Sun Officer had been very sympathetic about it... especially since the flu just _happened_ to hit at the worst time of the month for her. So in an effort to repay the woman... it didn't matter what people said, she could tell "Sorella" truly was a woman in soul, if not heart despite being unlucky enough to be born "male"... she had offered to deliver the Sun Division's paperwork for the next week.

Levi didn't care what she did so long as she stayed out of the way of his rather disturbing stalker tendencies towards the Boss and didn't make herself _noteworthy_ in a way that might make her a potential rival for Lightning Officer.

There was a reason why she had infiltrated the Lightning Division. Besides the fact that the Officer was one of the most lax so long as you didn't draw too much attention, it also had a much larger number of people in it compared to the Clouds.

Ottabio might make her skin crawl, but he would have noticed an extra Cloud in his division. Levi had overlooked the fact there was one more than there should have been because she did her job without complaining and was actually efficient at it. No one looked at Lightnings unless they needed a meat shield. Besides, it was behavior she was already conditioned to which made her ability to hide in the division all too easy for her to pull off.

That no one had discovered the fact she had basically infiltrated the place and made herself at home said quite a bit. If she wasn't leery of mind readers (which was only natural, considering the head of the Mist division was called "Mammon _Esper_ " and had genuine psychic abilities if rumor was to be believed) she would have found the fact that a group of elite assassins had missed a _civilian_ sneaking into their ranks _hilarious_.

"Voi! I wouldn't go in there," said Squalo with a pinched expression on his face.

"Why?"

"Vongola Nono is in there with his Storm. Boss is _always_ in a foul mood when he deigns to show up."

"Then he could use a distraction who doesn't mind being in the line of fire to begin with," said Hexe.

Squalo eyed her oddly for a moment.

"Voi. Wait here a minute... if you're going to take in paperwork anyway then you can drop mine off as well," said Squalo.

He came back with some papers, and pointed out the red ones.

"These get signed first... I need them _today_ , not a week from now."

"Got it. Into the breech, I guess," said Hexe.

Within seconds she understood _why_ the Boss didn't like it whenever this "Nono" visited. He had the same aura as Dumbledore, except he didn't feel like he was too chickenshit to actually _kill_ someone.

In other words a manipulative old bastard who wouldn't hesitate to ruin a child's life to achieve his own goals and then pretended he had some lofty reason for doing it.

The other man felt like the stuffy old bloods back home. The kind who were stubborn as hell and a total bitch and a half to work with because they were stuck on a "This is how we've always done it and if you don't like it, then tough shit because I'm not budging" mentality.

She couldn't blame the boss in the _least_ if this was what he had to deal with. He'd probably be more than happy with a distraction from this sort of bullshit.

She walked right past the old bastard (as she was already mentally calling him) without even introducing herself.

"Squalo and Lussuria's paperwork, Boss. Squalo said he needed the ones in red done _today_ , not a week from now," she said, interrupting the old bastard and his asshole sycophant without any remorse or hesitation. All while looking Boss right in the eye without backing down or acknowledging the sheer level of pissed off intent in the room.

Boss looked darkly amused at her stunt, especially when she gave him her full and undivided attention while blatantly ignoring the other two in the room as inconsequential of her notice.

She had no idea who the old bastard or his sycophant was, nor did she honestly _care_. She only considered _four_ people in the castle to be worth listening to, regardless of how stupid she felt the order.

In order they were "Levi A Than", Lussuria, Squalo and the Boss himself. The first because he was her officer, the second because she was in charge of everyone's health (but was thankfully less cloying than Madam Pomphrey had ever been... Luss accepted it when she said she was "fine" enough to go back on mission duty and only brought out the bed straps if it was clear that someone was being unusually stubborn about their own health to the point of being stupid), Squalo because he was generally the one to dole out mission assignments for the other officers to trickle down to the rank and file, and Boss because he was the one In Charge of the Varia and no one said no to him.

In short these two were positively inconsequential in the face of Boss' bad mood and the ever-pressing need to get paperwork done on time.

The old bastard looked at her with a thoughtful gaze she _really_ didn't like.

"What's your name miss?" he asked politely, trying for "kindly".

She turned to face him with an odd look on her face (at least as much as you could see with half her features obscured by her hair) which she knew the Boss had definitely noticed.

"Are you going senile, _sir_?" she inquired sweetly. "Everyone knows there are no women in the Varia. To assume otherwise is Stupid on a level only _civilians_ every successfully manage with any consistency."

Boss was clearly trying desperately not to laugh his ass off at the look on the sycophant's face at that comment, if the choking sounds from behind her were any indication.

"That's an unhealthy shade of red. Are you suffering from an aneurysm?" she inquired of the sycophant with mock concern, which only made the amusement she could feel from the boss worse.

Hearing the sputters of indignation from the other gentleman, she went back to ignoring them both.

Seeing the boss was in no state to look at them, the two went to leave.

However before the old bastard moved more than a few steps away from his chair, Hexen felt something press against her which killed any and all amusement from the Boss in an instant.

Hexe didn't even realize she was reacting on instinct. One second she was next to the Boss...the next moment she had sent the old bastard flying through the door with a strong right hook that coincidentally had the nice side effect of giving him a nasty broken jaw.

Registering the threat nearby, she quickly sent the sycophant after him before he had a chance to react with any real success.

Dead silence. She could recognize the look of shocked amusement coming from Squalo as well as the dark interest on the Boss. But right now it was taking everything she had not to drop into a nasty flashback of the last time she had felt that sensation around Albus Dumbledore, back when he was still trying to mold her into his little protege without any consideration for her own feelings or potential plans.

Boss was definitely looking at her with actual interest in his eyes. He had been amused before, but that knee-jerk reaction had put her firmly on his radar as someone who might be worthy of his notice.

"What's your name, trash?"

"Hexe, Lightning Division twelfth squad," she replied.

Boss grunted, and waved his hand off. She made herself scarce so that the two who had been so unceremoniously thrown out of the room wouldn't be able to get a proper look at her... the Boss kept the rooms a bit dark, and half her face was obscured by her black hair.

She was so getting drunk tonight.


	2. Chapter 2

"Voi. What the fuck is this shit?" demanded Squalo.

In his hands was the file on "Hexe", the tiny as hell Lightning who had the balls to not only brave Xanxus in a foul mood without flinching, but also ignore Vongola Nono and his Storm before tossing them both bodily out of the office when Nono flared his Flames at her.

After that incident Xanxus had decided to take an interest in the odd Lightning, if only to see if she could replace Levi who was just plain annoying and half useless.

Except the file was _wrong_.

There was no indication of _who_ recruited her, how she had been noticed and invited, what her specialties were or even if she was in fact a Lightning. There wasn't even a proper physical written by Lussuria, which was damn near standard.

It was as if she had suddenly walked into the Varia one day and decided to stick around.

The most horrifying thing was that if she hadn't gotten the attention of the Boss, then they never would have picked up on it!

Xanxus didn't know whether to be pissed or impressed.

He was very unhappy that Levi hadn't _noticed_ the extra in his division without the appropriate paperwork to go with it, and impressed she had been able to not only slip into the Varia but avoid detection long enough to earn a proper codename without showing any signs of the fact she wasn't supposed to be there.

"Voi... how do we handle this?" asked Squalo. If someone like Hexe could slip in completely unnoticed, then who knew how many other infiltrators there were?

Xanxus eyed the file with interest.

Most infiltrators and spies generally gave themselves away within a few months or left. However from all general report, Hexe... or rather "Rosethorn" had managed to fit right in and was showing absolutely no indication of wanting to _leave_ , much less give away secrets or traitorous acts.

One thing was for certain though... there was no way in _hell_ this girl was a Lightning if she was able to pull something like this off and escape notice until now.

"We keep an eye on her. See if she gives herself away... either that or find out what her Flame type actually _is_ and put her under the direct control of the officer in charge," said Xanxus. He wasn't about to waste potential Quality...especially not one who provided him such entertainment! Last he heard the old man couldn't even chew steak for the next few months and he'd feel the pain of that punch for the rest of his life.

* * *

"Ushishishi! Higher!" demanded Belphegor with great glee and childish delight.

Upon learning his favorite witch was able to turn into a dragon, Belphegor had all but demanded to see her animal form.

Hexe had obliged with tolerant amusement, and the second he crawled onto her flat wing, she sent him flying up in the air, only to catch him with that same wing.

It hadn't taken him long to figure out she was letting him use her wings as makeshift trampolines, or that she didn't mind if he crawled onto her head and used her spine as an odd, bumpy slide.

He found it so much fun that he made her transform whenever they had time off so he could act his actual age. Best of all when he wore himself out, she would let him use her foreleg as a pillow and would curl her wings and tail around him protectively to let him nap in peace without having to worry about anyone attacking him if he let his defenses down.

It. Was. Awesome.

Belphegor let out a shriek of surprise when Hexe's teeth suddenly grabbed him midair, stashed him under her wings and let out a mighty _roar_ in the general direction of the door. There was a rush of _heat_ from her side and the sound of something rushing past his ears... when he dared to look out past the protective embrace of the dragon, he found a dead peasant in Varia uniform that had more or less been turned to charcoal in the span of a few seconds.

He silently gulped...but he wasn't afraid of Hexe. Once assured that the threat was neutralized permanently, she nuzzled Belphegor gently, as if to make sure he wasn't hurt by the sudden mid air grab.

Belphegor ran his smaller hands over her muzzle, smelling the brimstone of her firebreath.

He noticed that her eyes had gone from a vibrant green akin to cut and polished emeralds to an almost amethyst color with streaks of another he couldn't quite catch.

She shifted from dragon form.

"You alright?" she asked with genuine concern.

"Ushishishi... the peasant deserved it, if he was stupid enough to come in here without knocking," said Belphegor. He hugged the older girl, and relished in the fact she seemed to genuinely care about him and treat him like an almost-adult.

At the same time she never used the fact he was younger and smaller against him. She let him be a kid without once doubting that he was any less dangerous than she was, which made her his second favorite person after the Boss and before Mammon who didn't always have time for him.

"Voi! What the hell happened in here?"

"This idiot came in without knocking and paid the price," said Hexe without hesitation and no little vehemence. If she hadn't caught the scent of something she really didn't like, she might not have been quick enough to snatch Bel from the air in time to protect him and launch an attack before the intruder realized the danger.

Her maternal instincts had all but _demanded_ she protect the "princeling" as she had a habit of privately calling him in her head from someone she KNEW was a threat.

It wouldn't be until a few days later that she was called in by the Boss and found out who it was had set her off to the point she'd kill them on instinct.

Seeing her file on the desk made her blood run cold. To be honest she had always accepted the idea of this happening, but had hoped it wasn't so soon. She had barely been here a year and a half!

Boss, or rather "Xanxus" as she had belatedly learned his name was, had a rather odd expression on his face.

It was part amused, part irritated. Mostly amused though.

"Did you know you're the first person to ever successfully infiltrate the Varia so thoroughly that not even the Mist or Sun division caught on to the deception?" said Xanxus.

Belphegor stiffened hearing that, a look of betrayal on his face. Even he knew infiltrators were killed on sight if caught.

"To be fair, while the Levi is slavishly devoted to you, he is crap at doing his paperwork or registering a fake unless it's blatantly obvious or someone points it out to him," deadpanned Rosethorn. "It only took me a _month_ before I was confident enough to slip in, create a file to pass his inspection and get in with the new recruits. It helped that your Mist was out of the castle for the better part of the week while I integrated myself."

Mammon looked visibly pleased hearing someone speak so highly of their ability to keep the Varia protections up-to-date that they only infiltrated the place _after_ they knew the Mist would be far away.

Belphegor looked visibly hurt, and was almost pouting.

"Do you have any idea who it was you killed?" asked Squalo slowly.

"All I knew was that his scent set me off and I wasn't about to let him in the room when the little princeling's defenses were down. He should have _knocked_ if he didn't want to end up dead," she said flatly.

"What's your Flame type?" asked Xanxus, equally flat.

"My... what?"

"Your Dying Will Flames. What type?" he repeated.

Rosethorn looked at him incomprehensibly. She had absolutely no idea what the hell he was talking about, and wondered if this had anything to do with why people seemed to put Varia members into specific divisions.

She had only picked Lightning because it was easy to join and fit with the instincts more or less trained into her by the senile old goat.

"Voi. Do you even know what Flames are?"

"I know that people seem to put a lot of odd emphasis based on 'type' and that whatever one you have automatically puts you in a general mold. I just found it all very ridiculous, to be honest."

She wondered why they were staring at her.

"...You do know what the mafia is, right?" asked Luss very slowly.

"General term for organized crime, most often has roots to Italy," she replied instantly. "Why?"

Squalo face-palmed in disbelief.

"I don't fucking believe this. A _civilian_ managed to infiltrate the most elite group of assassins without even knowing anything?!"

There were pained and disbelieving expressions on all their faces, especially Xanxus. It was quite hilarious to be honest.

Belphegor suddenly snickered.

"She's not just a civilian, she's a witch," he said with amusement.

Mammon's head whipped towards Rosethorn with far too much attention for her to like.

"That explains a lot. A witch would be able to pull a lot more off than a general civilian and they wouldn't think twice about Flames being used in front of them," said Mammon with open interest. "What enclave?"

"I was a Gryffindor, if that's what you're asking. I was also in the front lines of the war that recently ended, and not on the side that got their asses handed to them by _children_."

Mammon floated over to the file and the second they saw the name "Rosethorn" their breath hitched.

"What?" demanded Squalo.

"Rosethorn as in Brier Rose Lyra Potter-Black?" they demanded.

She stared at the Mist.

"How in the _hell_ do you know my full _actual_ name? Everyone always just calls me Rosethorn."

Belphegor's head whipped towards her in shock.

"Voi. Who names their kid Briar Rose?"

"It's actually spelled 'B-R-I-E-R', not the variant you're thinking of. And it's a trick my mother played because she wasn't too pleased learning how easily those not raised in purely magical settings can be pulled into magical contracts simply by using their full name. Everyone knows me as Rosethorn because that's what my parents all called me, unaware it was a nickname," she commented. "Apparently if I been born a boy, my name would have been Brier. And this still doesn't explain why it matters who I killed."

Lussuria chuckled at that.

"Do you know how officers are promoted?" she asked.

"Not really. I was more concerned about doing my job than bothering with promotions."

"There are three ways to become officer. Harmonizing with the current Sky and showing an aptitude for it, rising through the ranks with the backing of most of that division, or killing the current one and taking his place," said Mammon.

Rosethorn eyed the actual child in the room.

"That explains so much, actually."

"Ushishishi."

"The trash you killed the other day was Ottabio... the Cloud officer. Which means depending on what your Flame is, you might very well take over his spot. That or you'll end up under the direct supervision of whatever Flame type you have," said Xanxus bluntly.

They already knew it wasn't Lightning. She might have the training of one, but her behavior didn't fit quite well. It was more like someone had tried to force her into fitting a Flame type, rather than catering to the ones she already had.

If nothing else she'd end up in the Mist division, because she was definitely tricky enough for it.

"How do you summon these...Flames...anyway?" she asked.

"Voi. You have to bring up enough resolve about something that you'd be willing to die for it."

"That's it?" she asked in disbelief.

"That's the general method," said Squalo.

Without even thinking twice about it, she fell into the memory of the Final Battle, when that strange rush of heat flowed through her body and she was able to shove Voldemort's fragment out of her body.

She might have been willing to die for her friends, but she'd be damned if she let Riddle have the actual satisfaction of _killing_ her! Dumbledore had screwed her over enough, she wasn't going to follow his retarded plans to that extreme!

She barely registered the hitch in breath from most of the adults in the room.

"What is it now?"

"You... you went straight into Hyper Dying Will mode, without training and without even knowing what Flames _are_ ," said Squalo in absolute disbelief.

More to the point was the _color_ of said Flames. On the plus side, once they had her file filled out appropriately she was going to be the new Varia Cloud officer for sure.

Though they would _definitely_ be keeping the fact she had strong _Sky_ Flames under wraps. Vongola Nono was already showing signs of far too much interest in the Lightning who kicked his ass and showed such blatant disrespect towards him. The last thing they needed was for the old bastard to try and get his claws into her as his replacement Lightning Guardian.

Ganauche the second was almost due for a replacement, and was letting his position get to his head. He was going to end up dead sooner rather than later, and that meant Nono would need someone to take his place.

"The good news is you're now Ottabio's replacement," deadpanned Squalo once he got over his shock. He was so getting drunk after this. "Bad news... we're going to train your ass into the ground until we figure out what your specialties are and as payback for making us look like idiots."

Rosethorn smirked at him.

"Bring it. It can't possibly be worse than the crap Dumbledore pulled on me for _years_ ," she said with a cold smirk. She only vaguely noticed that Xanxus had one of his own.

"Well first things first sweetie! We need to give you a proper physical and see what your actual condition is~!" chirped Lussuria.

The blind panic at the thought of going near a hospital room was definitely showing on her face. She spent way too much time in the infirmary growing up! She refused to go there when she was fine!

Squalo's vicious shark-grin did not bode well for her next few months.


	3. Chapter 3

Lussuria was fortunately sympathetic with her aversion to hospital rooms...in between making some very pissed off noises upon learning _why_ she hated them so much. Once Ottabio's former quarters were thoroughly cleaned and some new furniture acquired (his scent pissed off her dragon to no end and she refused to sleep in there if it was present), it took very little time at all for the revelation that Ottabio had been replaced by a _very_ amusing Lighting who turned out to be a Cloud in disguise to hit the lower rank and file.

Most of Cloud division were up for debate on whether their new officer was any better than the old one.

However the _second_ Rosethorn went through the paperwork in Ottabio's office and started to see a pattern, she quickly grew very pissed off in short order.

Without even bothering to knock, she walked right in to a meeting between Squalo and Xanxus and dumped a large box full of Ottabio's personal files and bank information.

"Voi! What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"You have a leak. Or to be more specific you _had_ a leak and didn't know it," she informed him rather flatly.

Xanxus didn't ask anything, just started to take out several papers and read through them in quick succession.

Fifteen sheets in, and the papers were already starting to smoke from how pissed off he was. Squalo quickly started to catch on to the same thing she had spotted once she started going through the old paperwork to familiarize herself with her new position.

"Voi! That fucker was selling information to fucking Sawada?!" snarled Squalo.

"I also found signs that he's been getting payment from an outside source."

Xanxus looked downright murderous. What had started out as a major embarrassment after discovering a mere _civilian_ had managed to infiltrate the elite assassins was quickly starting to look like an unexpected windfall instead. Not only had she exposed a _major_ hole in their organization they hadn't known about, but she had also killed a traitor who had been high up enough to be privy to certain secrets that could have ruined them.

Secrets like the fact Xanxus was planning to shake up the Vongola by confronting Vongola Nono for lying about the fact he was adopted and not his son under the guise of a coup. Not that Ottabio knew about the adoption, but he _was_ aware of the coup and from the looks of things was selling this knowledge to the coward Sawada.

Which meant that despite how pissed off he was about finding out he was adopted, if he went through with the coup then it would only end up with the tables being turned on _them_ instead.

Xanxus was downright pissed finding out that the Cloud had been selling them out to _Sawada_ of all people. And, as it turned out when Mammon went looking to where the majority of the money came from, Viscounti...Nono's own Cloud Guardian.

Which meant Nono had _some_ idea that Xanxus was pissed off enough to plan something major and would be preparing appropriately for when it hit.

"What exactly were you planning that would have him make enough slip ups that a pattern could be formed?" she asked.

"A coup. Vongola's full of trash and Nono's doing exactly jack and shit about it," said Squalo without thinking, his anger getting the better of him.

"...Why?" she asked baffled.

"Fucker lied to me for years. Let me believe I had a chance to be Decimo and that he was my father," Xanxus grounded out.

"Uh-huh. And your best option that you could come up with was to plan a coup?" she said, raising an eyebrow.

Xanxus glared at her.

"What the fuck would you suggest, trash?" he demanded.

"Prank the living shit out of them to the point they're paranoid wrecks and jumping at shadows that aren't there. Make them question their own sanity without giving them something they can use against the Varia as a whole. Claim it's a training exercise for the mooks or something to test their infiltration and trap skills," she said without hesitation. "Hell, you could use what I did as an excuse to weed out the infiltrators or the unworthy and test the loyalty of the Cloud division."

Dead silence. The two mafioso looked at each other, then at her. A very vicious and positively _evil_ smirk started to spread across Xanxus' face.

"I _like_ it. I make the old bastard's life a living hell and get back at him for lying to me for all these years."

"I have access to a red head in England who is an absolute genius for humiliating and dignity-destroying pranks," said Rosethorn. George might even enjoy the challenge.

* * *

Xanxus officially _loved_ his new Cloud officer. She was by far more competent than Ottabio had ever been, actually loyal enough to bring up the fact the shit had been selling them out to Nono and CEDEF, and she was a survivor of the highest order with a cunning streak a mile wide.

The revelation she had snuck into the Varia and was originally a civilian had been a nasty shock for the young Storm officer. Learning that the 'peasant' who amused him so much and actually played with him without being demeaning about it was his royal _equal_ had been a slap to the face.

Belphegor almost wanted to feel betrayed... except even after being caught at her deception and taking the pathetic Cloud's place after she killed him, she still treated him like a little brother.

More to the point, she still let him use her as an odd sort of playground and even made time to actually _listen_ to him.

He didn't mind being called "little princeling"... it was a gentle term of endearment that reminded everyone he was royalty. Exiled royalty, but still royalty.

Once confirmed that she wasn't going anywhere, Belphegor started to drift into her office whenever he was bored, or just lonely.

Rosethorn didn't bother to get up...she let him flop into her lap and put her left hand on his head and started threading her fingers through his hair without dislodging his precious crown. It felt nice and she smelled even better.

When the silence grew to be too boring, Belphegor asked the question that was on the minds of many.

Namely why on earth someone like Rosethorn went through all the trouble of infiltrating the Varia when there were less suicidal and dangerous things to do. Like base jumping off a cliff without a parachute and no wand with a half-assed mastery of wandless magic.

Rosethorn looked at the little prince with amusement.

"According to Luss and Mammon, I was drawn to the Boss. After I left England, any territory I might have had was so thoroughly ruined that the second my Flames noticed his, they brought me straight here. I figured I'd see what the place was about and found it suited me perfectly. Levi's division was simply easier to get in than the actual Cloud division...even an idiot like that traitor would have noticed an untested extra when Clouds are so rare," said Rosethorn. "According to Luss I'm in the middle of developing a new territory since my previous ones were never allowed to fully establish because of Dumbledore and my upbringing. Which also explains my knee-jerk reaction to Nono's Sky...it was close enough to that old goat that it brought up a lot of nasty flashbacks."

Belphegor snuggled into her side...he could practically _hear_ the pain in her voice concerning the subject. He couldn't imagine what it was like to have Cloud flames and not be allowed to create even a basic territory to settle down with.

It was little wonder she had joined the Varia when her Flames noticed the Boss.

Rosethorn was in the very touchy state of creating a territory as was normal for Clouds. While she was in perfect Resonance with Xanxus (which could be mistaken for normal Harmony, not that her Cloud hadn't accepted him as her Sky), the fact remained that she was a heavily damaged Cloud who had been forced to suppress her own natural instincts and abused to the point she had extreme trust issues.

It was a miracle she was even sane with that much pressure on her.

"I heard the Sun Arcobaleno was called in last month by Nono. Something about security issues?" said Belphegor.

Rosethorn's smirk was positively _evil_.

"I may have diverted the Boss away from a coup and towards a more long term and much more satisfying payback for lying to him. I introduced him to a certain red head who needed a reason to get out of bed in the morning and the two have been scheming behind closed doors about pranks. Best of all the Iron Fort's wards are so shot to hell it's not even funny... they haven't updated them in over two centuries!" grinned Rosethorn.

"Ushishishi! I'm really bored right now... can we play a game, big sister?" asked Bel in an innocent tone. It was one that made him actually _sound_ his age and not like an "adorably homicidal little boy" as Rosethorn affectionately called him.

"Hmm... what sort of game does the little princeling want to play?"

"Dragons!" said Belphegor, face lighting up with excitement. Because dragons were awesome and he knew his big sister wouldn't hurt him and still made things interesting.

"I bet Mammon could use a break from the accounting for a few hours," mused Rosethorn, an idea already growing in her head. Once they had it set up she was sure that Mammon would get some amusement out of this as well. Maybe they could rope in some bored Mists from their division to play the game and make it a regular thing to unwind.

Rosethorn let Belphegor cling to her piggyback style as she carried him to Mammon's office.

"What is it? Time is money and I refuse to waste mine on idle frivolity," said Mammon sharply.

They definitely needed a break.

"We were wondering if you want to have a little fun and kill the boredom for a few hours."

Mammon looked up to see Rosethorn (she was still Hexe on official paperwork...she had _earned_ that Name) and Belphegor.

"I'm listening."

Rosethorn grinned and outlined the game. Belphegor was positively giddy with amusement when he heard the outline of the 'base plot' and what it entailed. Mammon looked amused and intrigued.

"And what part do I play in this 'game'?" asked Mammon.

"The Misty Merchant. You get to 'fence' all the crap the knights leave behind when they're eaten by the dragon and the dragon acts as the guard dog for your hoard... I'd rather have a hoard of books than shiny objects that have no use outside of currency."

Mammon was definitely amused and could use the break.

"Mu... let's find an empty training room to set this up. But I expect to be paid accordingly."

"I know how to make strawberry cake from scratch," said Rosethorn. "And I can source you firewhiskey."

"Deal."

* * *

 _A few hours later..._

"Has anyone seen Mammon, Bel or Hexe?" asked Luss.

Most said no, but one Mist pointed in the direction of some unused, damaged training rooms. They were due to be fixed within the month, but until then they were empty.

Or they _were_.

Hearing the roar of a dragon and the familiar giggling of Belphegor, Lussuria cautiously knocked before entering.

Everyone knew that Ottabio had gotten killed for entering the room Hex was in...without knocking. No one really believed she was a dragon though, regardless of _what_ Bel said about it.

Seeing the massive beast with some rather fabulous scales 'playing' with a mock up knight before eating 'him' alive, Lussuria stared. Then the Sun figured out what was going on when they saw an 'adult' Mammon come by to pick up all the knight's things and deliver 'food' to the dragon and the giggling Prince.

"Someone looks like they're having fun~!" said Luss cheerfully.

"Ushishishi... have you come to play too?" asked Bel from his spot on the dragon.

Luss could only be struck by the difference in Bel's behavior once Rosethorn's actual status was cleared up.

The young woman was very good for him, acting as a sort of older sister/mother figure for the boy and gave Bel a proper "female role model" the same way he looked to Boss for the male one. The fact she was openly smitten and treated him like a little brother/son to the point she openly called him "little princeling" didn't hurt.

"Oh? And what sort of game is this?" asked Luss, going along.

"The young prince of a certain kingdom ran away after being overlooked in favor of his brother, only to be captured very publicly by the feared dragon of the mountains. Naturally, since it's pretty much protocol the kingdom set the usual 'ransom/reward' for any knights or adventurers who rescue the kidnapped royal...except thanks to a clerical error and the fact no one thought to ask, no one is aware the captured royal is in fact a nine year old prince, not some simpering princess," said Mammon dryly. "I play the merchant who acts as the voice of the dragon and the one to fence the crap the knights and other idiots leave behind and in exchange the dragon guards my 'hoard'. And in exchange I help grow it's actual hoard which is a library as well as deliver food so they can eat without having to raid local villages for livestock."

Luss was trying very hard not to laugh.

"How did they rope you into this?"

"I needed a break, and Hexe suggested this could be a good way for the Mist Division to play with their Flames and unwind. That and she bribed me with cake."

Luss was already laughing. This sounded like a good way for the Mists to get used to playing with their illusions and add to their skills...and possibly mend the bridges between them and the other divisions. It also meant Bel wouldn't be bored out of his mind in between missions, as well as let Rosethorn unwind.

"I have only one question... how exactly did our little Thorn convince you to turn her into a dragon?"

Bel pouted and got down.

Rosethorn's wings stretched out...before wrapping themselves around her body which shrunk very rapidly. When they moved again, she was grinning at Luss with slit eyes and slight fangs.

"Mammon didn't. I'm a dragon animagus...which is actually how I killed Ottabio. He came in while Belphegor was using my wings as a makeshift trampoline and I flash fried his ass," she grinned.

Luss snorted.

"The peasant should have knocked first," said Bel snickering. He didn't even care that Rosethorn's chin was on his head while she hugged him. She was barely taller than he was.

"Well you three have a mission tomorrow," said Luss. Considering HOW Rosethorn joined the Varia, Belphegor's age and Mammon's curse, the two had become a joint team of sorts.

Though they _never_ sent Bel out without Mammon or Rosethorn, since they were among the only two who could keep Prince the Ripper on a leash and him out of trouble with the cops if he was out during school hours.

One because she could play the part of the exasperated older sister, the other because they could make the cops forget Bel was there in the first place.


	4. Chapter 4

Xanxus was in a foul mood. There was a Vongola ball next month and the old bastard was going to invite a lot of females of "appropriate age" in the hopes it would settle his pissed off adopted son down.

The old man had caved and told Xanxus the truth after three months of pranking hell and finally calling Reborn in for help.

Daniela, the Vongola Ottavo, had almost literally laughed herself sick when she found out what her grandson had done.

Xanxus had no intention of 'settling down' with the sycophants that the old bastard had the annoying habit of bringing around. Potential alliance be damned, they straight out pissed him off.

Which was why he was going to give the old bastard a coronary by hopefully bringing the same woman who kicked his ass and made it nearly impossible for him to eat steak after she broke his jaw.

It didn't hurt that she had gotten his attention by literally slipping into the Varia and showing her open disdain for the old bastard...without any of the ingrained respect that kept people from punching him before this. She had the eyes and bearing of a survivor, one who had been through hell and come out as forged steel.

That she was his Cloud was besides the point. She was the only female he had ever found any interest in. She at least didn't bore him to tears, act like a brainless fool and she understood some of the ingrained habits people took for granted or bitched about.

Finally he located them in an abandoned training room that wasn't really used for 'training' much anymore. From what he got out of the Varia gossip (bored assassins were chatty assassins when it came to 'in-house' gossip...so long as it didn't reach outside ears it was not only allowed but outright encouraged) someone had convinced the Mist division to start up a game for those who were bored or on sick leave and thus unable to take missions.

Something about a dragon and the prince brat.

Xanxus walked in and had to blink.

He found an _adult_ Mammon in a stall looking somewhat bored.

"Boss?" said Mammon in surprise.

"What the actual fuck?"

"Blame Hexe. It was her idea to amuse Belphegor and now everyone's gotten roped in it. I'm pretty sure I saw Squalo earlier," said Mammon.

"What's this about?"

"The basic 'plot' of this fantasy is that the 'prince' ran away from home because he was tired of being ignored in favor of his brother, only to end up publicly captured by the dragon in the mountains. Naturally the kingdom set up the usual ransom payment/reward for his return, except due to a communication error no one who's stepped up to try and claim is aware that the royal they're trying to rescue is a little prince, rather than a teenage princess."

Xanxus snorted in amusement.

"What's your role?"

"I deliver the food and sell off the crap the knights and adventurers leave behind when the dragon eats them, on top of bringing more to the dragon's hoard. In exchange the dragon acts as the guard dog for my own 'hoard' so I never have to fear someone trying to rob me of it," said Mammon.

"What's the dragon's hoard?"

"Books, mostly. That or scrolls. The game became very popular, very quickly when it became known that the 'dragon' didn't mind if the Mist division came to play as well," said Mammon.

After all, who didn't want to fight a dragon at least once? Though at least she mostly just bruised their ego rather than eat them, like she did the Mist constructs.

Xanxus was openly amused.

"How did she convince you to turn her into a dragon?"

"She didn't. Hexe is a dragon animagus," said Mammon.

It was official. He was going to try and court her as his date if it killed him.

Xanxus was positively grinning as an idea occurred to him.

"How would you like to add another element to the game?"

"I'm listening," said Mammon smirking.

When they heard what Xanxus had planned, they started snickering outright.

Mammon was quick to deliver a note to Belphegor about this development, and he was on board immediately. The only one who _didn't_ know about it was Rosethorn.

* * *

 _A few hours later..._

Rosethorn only knew a new element to the game had been added when she started hearing about a 'curse' on the dragon.

The 'news' that the royal the dragon had captured was actually a young prince meant that most of the 'sacrificial morons' she ate had dwindled considerably...now the adventurers were trying to find out how to break the dragon's curse and revert them back to human.

Either to rescue the prince or for some other purpose.

So naturally she was _very_ surprised when she saw the black knight come up the mountain. She was so very bored, and Belphegor was well hidden watching TV.

She flew down with a roar, and to her amusement the knight wasn't startled. His mount took off for safety, leaving the knight and his weapons the only things there.

She was positively grinning as her blood ran hot like fire. The knight was _very_ good and had sharp aim.

It was with great surprise that he tackled her in the air and managed to foul up her wings without damaging them. She adjusted in time to break her fall without hurting either of them.

That surprise turned to outright shock when the helmet came off, revealing Xanxus who had a fierce grin and a strange expression in his eyes.

She felt something against her lips and it took her several seconds to register he had just _kissed her_.

The shock of that caused her to revert back into human form, blushing madly.

Xanxus looked positively smug about the whole thing, especially since he had her pinned to the 'ground'.

"It looks like I managed to break the dragon's curse. What's my reward?" he purred.

"What?" choked Rosethorn, blushing horribly.

"I said what's my reward, little dragon?"

"Shishishi...perhaps the Boss should just turn the dragon into his princess?" suggested Belphegor. Next to him Mammon was taking multiple blackmail pictures for later. This was too hilarious _not_ to record and they knew Daniela would pay a premium for this sort of thing.

"Now there's an idea. The Boss breaks the curse and ends up with a castle of his own, with the dragon as his princess," mused Mammon, head back in the 'game'. "Naturally she would take you with her. Everyone knows the 'dragon' is very fond of the prince she stole. It'll take a few days for the game to reset to the new parameters."

In other words Xanxus had a few days to convince his 'dragon' to act as his date to the ball and shut the old bastard up.

* * *

Rosethorn's blush did not abate. It only got worse whenever Xanxus was around. It was a source of endless entertainment among the Elite.

It wasn't that she didn't like Xanxus...far from it. He was _very_ attractive and had all the sorts of qualities she liked with only a few quirks to irritate her.

The problem was she had never been on a date. Not a real one at any rate. Fourth year was a complete disaster, fifth year had been hell and the years after that she was too busy trying to unravel whatever it was Dumbledore had planned or staying alive to care about dating.

It really, really didn't help the way Xanxus kept looking at her. He didn't actually touch, but the looks were bad enough. Outside of the game when he startled her into human form with a kiss, he had yet to do anything too invasive.

When one was courting a Cloud, it was better to leave out a tempting bait and let them come to you, from what she was told. Clouds didn't like being forced into something, at all.

Rosethorn sighed. She was a complete mess and this ball Xanxus asked her to (under the premise she would be a better date than any of the floozies that were almost certain to be there) was in three days.

She openly considered the offer, and once she went to get some lunch from the kitchens she thought it over.

Looking at the tired creature in the mirror actually made her decision easy.

"To hell with it. At least it won't be boring and the Boss won't try anything I don't like."

Xanxus was surprisingly respectful to the females in the Varia. He didn't make any demands he wouldn't have made from the men, and he made damn sure everyone knew he wasn't about to tolerate _any_ sexual harassment (from either gender).

She walked in with her reports (she was one of the rare few who could do so regardless of whether the Boss was in a good mood or not, next to Squalo) she decided to let her actions speak for her. Good thing the office was empty save for Xanxus.

Xanxus looked particularly smug after that kiss.

"I take it this means you'll be my date?"

"Probationary only," she replied. "I've had far too many idiots trying to get into my pants for all the wrong reasons to want to jump into something half-cocked."

"Fair enough," said Xanxus, completely sympathizing. It was actually that reason which had prompted him to ask her in the first place.

* * *

Luss was certainly enthusiastic...they rarely got to play 'dress up' with a willing victim. All Rosethorn asked was that it be dragon themed, or at least match the magical tattoo on her right shoulder.

It was a deep red rose that was growing out of a briar bush. The rose's petals grew or fell depending on her mood. When she was happy, it was in full bloom. If she were depressed, then it started to rain petals like the one from _Beauty and the Beast_. If she were in mourning then the rose would look half dead.

If she were pissed though... the briar would start lashing out and the rose would turned a bloody red color.

She thought it was a highly appropriate tattoo to get, considering her name. Belphegor had certainly loved it when he first saw it.

The evening of the ball (in which Xanxus disgustedly confirmed that a large number of girls his age range had been invited, likely to tempt him into finding a proper wife) had the Boss in a semi-foul mood.

The only reason he wasn't ditching the entire event lay to three factors.

One, he had also confirmed his Nonna Daniela would be there (thus insuring one decent conversation partner). Two, there were absolutely zero missions that were marked urgent enough to get out of the bitch fest from Coyote if he avoided the entire thing. And three, which was the main reason, he had a date for once that he knew would be mostly tolerable.

One who had already proven to have zero regard for the status of the Vongola and would cheerfully resort to violence if the scheming old bastard or his Guardians pissed her off enough.

Needless to say he wasn't the only one staring or gaping outright when his date was released from Lussuria's all too enthusiastic mercies.

Being given free reign (within reason) over someone's wardrobe and look had made Rosethorn the Sun's new favorite person over Xanxus.

Hexe looked nothing like the semi-laid back woman who took the Clouds under firm control and weeded out those who had been in on Ottabio's stupidity.

She wore a very sleek, form fitting dress with thorns all along the trim. It exposed her back, shoulders and both arms...which only allowed the large number of scars to be perfectly visible. Her hair had been brushed and some sort of product put in it to make it look sleek and smooth, while flowing down her back...parts of it had been braided with what looked like miniature black and red roses with thorns, which looked rather fashionable against her deep red hair. The dress itself had a slit against her right thigh, which only went up midway to her hip. She had an odd, scaly necklace around her neck that seemed to dip down into her bust, and a light shawl with red roses around her shoulders.

He was only mildly surprised she wasn't wearing heels, but then again he highly doubted she knew how to walk in such things.

Topping it all off was the light dusting of make-up on her face... the deep red lipstick was a perfect match and complimented her hair color, while the light application of kohl around her eyes only made the green coloring practically pop out at you. The fact she was wearing contacts only made it even more noticeable, as her eyes weren't obscured by her usual frames.

Xanxus was _definitely_ pleased with the transformation. He had known she was a looker when she bothered to dress up in anything that hugged her curves rather than the loose outfits she preferred, but this was a major difference. She was going to outclass every other woman in there save for some of the older generation like his Nonna.

"Well?" she asked, slightly nervous. He was staring at her and hadn't said a single word.

"You are going to make me the envy of the fucking ball the second they find out you're my date," he growled, wrapping an arm around her waist.

Every hot blooded male that was even remotely straight was going to have all eyes on her...and that was before anyone knew she was also a Sky secondary.

If even half of what Mammon had dug up on her in the magical enclaves was true, then Rosethorn was going to be the most desirable female in the entire mafia...and she had no fucking clue about it, much less care.


	5. Chapter 5

When Xanxus arrived with a date, it had been mild news among the mafioso already at the ball. A bit vexing for the women trying to catch his eye, but not noteworthy.

Then people actually saw what said girl looked like, and that abruptly changed from "mildly interesting" to "Holy Shit, where did he find someone that hot willing to act as his date?!" in short order.

Daniela was immensely pleased...and the fact that Xanxus' date had her cackling with delight made more than a few people nervous. The old Donna clearly loved the girl Xanxus had brought and was animatedly chatting with her at length about something.

What really topped it off was the _Look_ Timoteo Vongola had on his face when he saw her... he definitely recognized her and he was beyond shocked to see her there. That he kept rubbing his jaw without noticing it made a lot of people wonder if the girl had something to do with the fact he had a very rough encounter in the Varia base some time back that left him with more than a few broken bones and a very incensed Storm.

Rumor had it someone from the lower ranks had kicked his ass while he was there, but no one had dared to confirm it.

Xanxus was in a very, very good mood and it was only getting better. As he had predicted, the second people got a good look at his date they were the center of attention.

Everyone kept giving Rosethorn second, third and even fourth looks. The women kept either hitting their own dates or giving Rosethorn looks of envy and jealously respectively, as if they saw her and immediately felt inferior.

The men drooled for all of several seconds before their dates (or wives) reminded them they were unavailable.

Xanxus had no doubt if Rosethorn went to the food table alone she'd be mobbed by admirers within seconds.

The real kicker came when he spotted his grandmother who was watching all of it with an expression of someone who was being immensely entertained.

He made a beeline for her.

"Hexe, this is Daniela Vongola, the Eighth Vongola boss."

Rosethorn firmly cemented herself on his Nonna's good side with a single move.

"Boss, I thought you were introducing me to your _grandmother_ , not your Aunt. There's no way she's over fifty," said Rosethorn.

Daniela's eyes gleamed at that. She hid her mouth with her hand, clearly trying not to laugh.

"You're not trying to butter up an old woman are you?" she asked with mischief.

"I've meet someone who fought in World War Two. _She_ actually looks like she was on the front lines, where as you look more like someone's favorite aunt than a grandmother. Besides, your son looks older than you do," she replied with perfect sincerity.

Daniela cackled.

"I approve of her grandson. Wherever did you find such a delightful young lady?"

Xanxus' grin was all teeth.

"She found _me_. She actually had the balls to infiltrate the Varia and got away with it for months until she tossed the old bastard out of the office when he flared his Sky at her. Then she cemented a place with us when she killed the traitorous Cloud officer I had," said Xanxus grinning darkly.

Daniela's eyes sparkled.

" _You're_ the one who broke my son's jaw and threw his Storm out through a closed door?"

"He had it coming. The last Sky I had to deal with had a similar bad habit of flaring his aura around people who were _supposed_ to be allies in order to get them to fall in line," said Rosethorn without remorse. "I'd do it over in a heart beat... his Sky is far too similar to Dumbledore for me to ever get along with him."

"Dumbledore as in _Albus_ Dumbledore?" said Daniela, expression full of complete sympathy. "If my son reminded you of that fool, then it was no wonder you reacted so badly."

"About the only thing I can say in your son's favor is that at least he doesn't look or act as cowardly as Dumbledore was," said Rosethorn.

"On an unrelated note, what was this I heard about a rash of mass pranking in the Iron Fort?"

Xanxus went stone faced.

"It was either that or stage a coup," said Rosethorn.

Xanxus shot her a look.

"I set up a privacy barrier the second we started talking. Any bugs or Mists trying to listen in will only hear random small talk and her teasing you about your date. That or her making some very lewd insinuations about what we should do after the party," said Rosethorn.

"Oh I definitely like you," said Daniela, cackling. "You had better not let this one slip out of your grasp, grandson."

Xanxus smirked.

"I have no intention to, Nonna. I found out the old bastard was lying about me being his son...if not for Rosethorn finding out Ottabio had been selling information to Sawada and Viscounti we might have gone through with a fake coup to rattle the cage a bit and get Nono off his ass about the rats in the family. She's the one who suggested we prank the living shit out of them instead."

Daniela approved.

"I told that idiot it was only going to bite him in the ass sooner rather than later, with the way he was leading you on. The rings are blood-locked...with how thin your connection to the Vongola is the only way you'd become Decimo is if all other heirs were suddenly removed or rendered incapable. However he didn't want me to tell you anything..."

"And since he's head of the family, you had to keep silent even though you didn't agree with it at all," said Rosethorn with sympathy. "And the irony is that he's still less of an idiot compared to Dumbledore."

"So if you had exposure to that senile fool, what House were you in?"

"Half-blood and I was a Gryffindor...though the Hat wanted to put me in Slytherin first. The old bastard openly tried to force me into being his little martyr due to some half-assed prophecy. As I found out later when Xanxus finally called me on the fact I hadn't entered the Varia normally I went Active the night I was supposed to sacrifice myself for a bunch of backwater morons who likely haven't even learned their lesson properly," said Rosethorn.

"Oh, so my grandson managed to snag England's so-called Savior as his Cloud? How has he been treating you?" asked Daniela, full of sympathy.

She had kept track of that debacle...mostly out of boredom. Anyone with eyes could see the poor girl was being absolutely snowed under and no one dared to speak up against Dumbledore to help her out. Finding out she was a Cloud said volumes of how trapped she must have felt.

Rosethorn shivered.

"I was fully prepared to end up very dead when they busted me... instead I took over the Cloud officer position without even knowing. I honestly have no intention of ever going back... I like it in the Varia better because at least they treat me like a person, not some prized brood mare they can parade about."

Xanxus wrapped an arm around her waist...much to the amusement and approval of Daniela.

It was the first time he had shown any interest in a girl his own age.

* * *

As predicted, when Rosethorn went to get something to eat the area was suddenly swamped by most of the single males there.

She took far too much pleasure in revealing what her "necklace" actually was.

The second most of the men there saw a live king cobra rise up from where it had been napping around her neck, they gave her a wide berth. Especially since she was way too calm with the deadly snake around her neck.

Only _one_ person had the balls to go up to her when the snake woke up.

"Ciaossu. Interesting choice in neck-wear, miss...?"

"You must be Reborn. Viper's said a lot about you," said Rosethorn cheerfully. "Is it true you speak Reptile, or is it just lizard and bug?"

Reborn smirked.

What came out of his mouth was close enough to parseltongue that she could understand most of it...and more importantly so could her snake. She beamed at him.

"I'm called Hexe... Varia Cloud officer and currently acting as my Boss' shield against his rabid fangirls or those trying to get into his pants."

Reborn looked rather amused hearing that.

"This is Leon," he said, holding out his hand so a chameleon could crawl into it. "He's a shape-changing chameleon."

"He's positively adorable. This is Set, though he's a normal cobra. Viper had a field day when I told them why I needed a king cobra and about died from laughing when they saw me wear it like a necklace. I think they were hopeful for me to get plenty of blackmail pictures."

Reborn smirked. He liked this girl. And it only grew as he got to know her a little better. Not _once_ did she treat him like a child or have the same awe that most mafioso did upon meeting the World's Greatest hit man.

No, this was more like a conversation between equals who had a similar love of reptiles and causing chaos.

If only he weren't cursed and a few decades younger... he wouldn't have hesitated to pursue this delightful young woman.

* * *

Vongola Nono had a very pained look on his face the second he realized who the girl was that his adopted son had brought as his date. She might have cleaned up considerably, but he recognized those Flames anywhere.

And if he recognized her, then so had Coyote... which likely explained his very pissed off growling. He had never quite forgiven the girl who had made a fool out of him _and_ insulted his Sky so blatantly. And that was before she broke his jaw and threw the two of them out of the office!

The girl turned, took one look at them and had a very self-assured and darkly amused smirk. If it wasn't for the public setting Coyote would have challenged her then and there for what she did.

"Coyote looks like he's about to have a coronary," said Xanxus with open delight. This was far too entertaining not to watch.

"Why exactly does Nono have such a pained expression on his face?" asked Reborn. He had followed Rosethorn back to the table they were sharing with an amused Daniela.

"I'm the one who broke his jaw and three of his ribs...and then I sent his Storm right after him before he had a chance to defend his Sky's rather dubious honor from a girl half his age," said Rosethorn dryly.

Reborn stopped what he was doing, and looked at her with an unidentifiable expression on his face.

" _You're_ the one who broke his jaw?" he said with a flat, neutral tone.

It was pretty clear to those that actually knew him that Reborn was trying his best not to break into hysterics.

"Have you ever heard of Albus Dumbledore?"

Reborn nodded.

"Well he had the same bad habit of flaring his Sky whenever things weren't going his way. The second the old fool did that within close proximity to me it sent me into a flashback. Most of what I did was on pure instinct, especially since Dumbledore kept trying to force me into being his Cloud," said Rosethorn.

Reborn winced with empathy. He knew how bad it was when a Sky tried to drag in an element stronger than they were by force. If it happened repeatedly enough, then it was only natural she would have developed a knee-jerk reaction to it happening around her.

He had his own method of dissuading such attempts among the more foolish Skies who couldn't take a hint. Most learned to leave him alone once he started maiming the idiots.

Reborn patted her knee with sympathy. So he changed the subject instead.

"How did you join the Varia? Did you just kill the Cloud Officer and take his spot or were you recruited?"

"I broke in while Viper was out for two weeks, wrote myself in as a new mook in the Lightning division and kept my head down while going through training and the standard missions until Nono set me off and brought me to the Boss' attention," said Rosethorn dryly. "You should have seen Squalo's face the second he found out a _civilian_ managed to slip into their ranks and they didn't catch it for months."

Dead silence.

"You're joking," said Reborn in disbelief. The Varia were the Elite. He had great trouble believing a mere civilian had managed to infiltrate them long enough to become Cloud officer.

"Levi might be ridiculously loyal, but he doesn't really pay attention to the little details like who's in his division... Lightnings have one of the highest turn over rates...next to Storm, but that's mostly because of Bel's temper tantrums. I didn't even know it _was_ possible to become an Officer by killing the current one until after Ottabio was turned into charcoal. He really should have knocked," said Rosethorn. "Actually..."

Rosethorn pulled out a cell phone from who knew where...and with a few swipes pulled up a few photos.

"What are these?" asked Reborn, mouth quirking upwards.

"That would be a photo I took from a pensieve of the reaction Squalo and the others had upon learning I was a civilian who didn't have the slightest idea what Flames were, and yet managed to infiltrate an elite group of assassins _and_ kill one of the Officers without even knowing that it would automatically make me one so long as I had an identical Flame type," said Rosethorn dryly.

"Wait, you can take photos from inside a pensieve?" said Daniela, eyes gleaming.

"So long as it's one you can pause, then yeah. I see no reason why you _couldn't_ take photos so long as it's not digital... unless someone can explain to me why electricity doesn't work around magic."

Daniela looked like Rosethorn had just given her access to the world's greatest blackmail.

"I'm sensing embarrassing moments that were forgotten about suddenly being caught on camera and then shown around," said Xanxus smirking.

Rosethorn suddenly grinned evilly at Daniela.

"I'll loan you my personal one if you can help get pictures of the Boss when he was an angry little brat fresh off the streets. Viper would pay a fortune for those and I bet Bel would get a kick out of seeing the Boss so young."

"Hey!" protested Xanxus.

"Deal!" said Daniela cackling. She loved this girl, she really did.

"I need a drink," said Xanxus grumpily.

"I'm fairly certain Timoteo made very sure you wouldn't be able to get anything except wine," said Reborn.

"What a coincidence. I brought firewhiskey with me along with several pranks to liven up a potentially boring party," said Rosethorn.

She suddenly had Reborn's undivided attention.

"I like you," he announced.

"So... who wants to hold the camera and get the blackmail developed for later?" asked Rosethorn.

Daniela was having trouble in not laughing her ass off.

"Grandson, if you don't marry this girl I will be so disappointed in you," said Daniela dead serious. She was also holding a camera with a gleam in her eyes.

"I seriously need that drink."


	6. Chapter 6

Rosethorn woke up with a god awful migraine...and in different clothes then what she had been wearing the night before. The party had been a complete blast...once she started sharing some of the pranks she brought with Reborn and the two conspired to get the most people. The pained (and horrified) look on Vongola Nono's face had made the entire thing worth it...especially at the massive grin Xanxus had on his, in between Daniela's cackles at the chaos they were causing.

Feeling something shift next to her, she turned to find...Xanxus?

"...Exactly how much did we drink and how the hell did I get out of that dress?"

"Nonna let us crash in her mansion and let you borrow some of the spare clothes they have around...and then proceeded to get us both very drunk in the hopes of pairing us off. You more or less crashed once you hit the bed and I was too lazy to find another room," grunted Xanxus. "Go back to sleep."

"I believe you," she said honestly.

Even she knew there would be evidence of them sleeping together if they had. She didn't exactly have time for that sort of thing before she came to Italy, and after she was too busy running missions to find a decent boyfriend.

When she tried to move she found his arm around her waist. It was like a steel band pinning her to him...she was strangely reluctant to remove it.

Feeling a sharp stab of pain in her head, she decided she'd rather sleep off the hangover than actually get up. Besides the bed was very soft and she knew he wouldn't actually try anything without her consent.

She cautiously leaned against his bare chest and listened to the sound of his breathing. It was ridiculously soothing and lulled her back to sleep within minutes.

Xanxus was ridiculously pleased by this turn of events.

Daniela, more so. She wanted great grandbabies to spoil, and her other grandsons weren't cooperating!

* * *

 _In the Varia..._

"So Boss, how was the ball? I noticed you didn't come back last night..." said Luss grinning.

"Crashed at Nonna's place after Hexe went and got a pint-sized enabler. Should have seen the bastard's face when he recognized her and then realized there was a connection between her and the prank spree from hell," grinned Xanxus.

"'Pint-sized enabler'?" repeated Mammon.

"She ran into Reborn, and then proceeded to exchange phone numbers with him after they pranked the living hell out of everyone with some stuff she brought...and gave Nonna a camera to capture blackmail. Pretty sure she'd sell you copies if you asked," said Xanxus.

"Tell them the best part... your grandmother was openly shipping us to the point she made very sure we'd end up in the same bed together, even if all we did was sleep," said Rosethorn dryly.

Squalo was openly grinning at Xanxus now...so was Luss.

"And what exactly was with all the staring? It's like they weren't expecting to see you with a date or something," she complained. "Before I forget, thank you for getting that king cobra for me. Best deterrent from horny morons ever."

"Mu. It was my pleasure," said Mammon snickering.

"Pretty sure that was why Reborn bothered to approach me. Though apparently his ability to speak reptile somewhat extends to snakes."

"Somewhat?"

"His accent was very weird and kept throwing me off," said Rosethorn.

Xanxus smirked and pulled out his phone. He held it out to Mammon.

"What is this?" asked the Mist, smirking.

"His expression when she started speaking snake to him. Took him a few tries before he figured it out, but after that they spent over an hour freaking everyone in their vicinity out. Fucking hilarious, especially when the cobra got into it with them."

Mammon started laughing.

"Which reminds me... Daniela promised copies of a younger Boss if I loan her my pensieve and show her how to take pictures inside it," smirked Rosethorn. "And by 'younger' I mean Bel's age when he first joined and was still a little scrapper from the streets young."

"Voi, are you serious?!" said Squalo grinning like a shark. Xanxus was actually _pouting_ at the reminder.

"Yup. Just need to visit her with the penseive and take several rolls of film with me."

* * *

Rosethorn was digging out one of her books. Someone (she suspected Xanxus) had sent a bouquet of several different flowers to her office. It wasn't anything as cliché as a bunch of red roses, but she did recognize jasmine, hyacinth and tulips in there.

When she figured out the subtle message her face went red with a blush.

She had never been properly courted before, so this was something new. Especially considering the source.

She had nothing against Xanxus...far from it. He was a guy she could easily fall for (and not for the same reasons most females would) and remain loyal to for life.

It was just...she was so badly damaged after that damn war and her own shitty childhood that she had no idea what to do with romantic love. She could and did share the love of "family" with Belphegor and the love of a "friend" with Luss, Mammon and oddly enough Squalo (Levi had never quite forgiven her for using _his_ division to sneak into the Varia and thus completely embarrassing him in front of the Boss).

But the feeling of love between romantic partners?

That was something she was totally and utterly unprepared for.

When in doubt on how to handle such things, she went to the best source of sorting it out...that wouldn't charge her for it of course.

"Come on in, darling~!"

"Hey Sorella... I think the Boss is courting me," she said, sitting down in Lussuria's office.

Rosethorn had an understanding with Luss. She would come in for the regular check-ups and general health problems... so long as she didn't have to go into the infirmary to do it.

Every time she was in there it gave her flashbacks of how weak she always felt after her 'yearly' adventures and the number of times Dudley had successfully managed to hurt her badly enough that she required hospital care.

Which were thankfully few in number, but the simple fact remained that "hospital" would always equate to "weakness" in her mind. Namely if she was a patient then she was too "weak" to survive.

She was just glad Lussuria was willing to compromise on that front. The fact she was willing to work with the Sun made her one of his least difficult patients. She would submit to medical treatment if she needed to...so long as the gender-confused Sun didn't mind a slightly different location.

"Well it's about time! The Boss has been rather grumpy lately because he didn't want to chase you off."

"That's not likely," snorted Rosethorn, settling in with tea and food. "Joining the Varia is the closest I've ever come to being _myself_ and not some bloody poster girl for people who deserve an asskicking for sheer Stupidity. I wouldn't let something like an awkward office romance ruin that."

Lussuria patted her on the shoulder.

"You're the first female he's had close contact with regularly that hasn't made a big deal about the most ridiculous things. He knows you like him for _him_ , not as Xanxus Vongola."

"On an unrelated note, I've been able to schedule an appointment with a trustworthy healer. Once you've signed the consent paperwork and had the appropriate spell-checks, you'll officially be a woman. Just remember it's going to take a few weeks to adjust while it becomes permanent."

Everyone knew that the Sun Officer was a woman trapped in a man's body. He had never let it stop him from acting as he truly was, but when Rosethorn had offered to let the gender-confused man become an actual _woman_ with none of the usual side-effects and dangers from the normal procedure, Luss had to take some time to consider it.

Apparently gender-swapping was _common_ among magicals, to the point you just needed healer approval (and enough gold) to take a potion that would permanently adjust your gender to the one your soul and mind identified with. There was a one-month period where the healer would monitor your condition, but once your body settled into the new normal, that was it.

Lussuria had been fine in his body, even if it was the wrong one, so he had never considered the chance that the imbalance might be corrected. He certainly never would have bothered with the long road to doing it the normal way, even if Sun Flames would have negated some of the risks.

However taking a potion and having a month off so his body adjusted properly was completely different. More than that, it was an already _proven_ method of correcting what many magicals considered a "simple" problem. There wasn't even any bias against those who went through it.

The Boss certainly didn't care so long as Luss could still do his job as the Sun officer. He was one of the few who had accepted him right off the bat.

"So you need advice?" asked Luss.

"I have no idea how to handle this. The closest I came to an actual date was a rather disastrous mandatory dance when I was fourteen...and the company left much to be desired."

She hadn't talked to Ron or the others in years, outside of helping Xanxus owl-order from Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.

It was popular opinion that she was dead or off recovering from a nasty injury from the Final Battle. It didn't help that she had put some very strong owl-wards around her, or that any mail from the enclaves went to the Goblins first.

She had yet to bother going to that vault to pick up her mail.

Luss patted her shoulder with sympathy.

"In this case, the best response is to let things progress on their own. You aren't expected to sudden develop romantic feelings for him or act on them. The Boss knows full well that you didn't exactly have a normal teenage experience, much less have a chance to date."

"What?" squeaked Rosethorn.

Luss looked at her with some sympathy and a little amusement.

"He had Mammon get all the papers from the time you entered Hogwarts to Dumbledore's funeral. Did you know they had a 'Potter Watch' in there? Seems your old classmates had some very loose lips and were very gossipy."

Rosethorn fumed. Of course there would be an entire column dedicated to her in that glorified gossip rag. Bloody wizards.

"Actually there were some new columns dedicated to 'Savior Sightings'," said Lussuria amused.

"Of course there would be," she growled. She hated wizards and was glad to be gone from that backwater country. Then she suddenly had an evil grin on her face. "I think I'll visit Mammon later. I'm sure they'd be delighted to have a bit of fun with those idiots."

Lussuria laughed, and once Rosethorn finished her tea she went to find the Mist.

Mammon adored Rosethorn for multiple reasons. The main one being that she didn't mind being used to generate blackmail material and actually kept the repair bills down. One of the few things Rosethorn did was go over the broken things and use a repairing charm on them.

Like the plumbing in the Lightning division, when some idiot cracked one of the pipes and would have left the entire division without water for a week. Which would have meant having to share with another group, and that would have raised tensions and possibly caused even more damage, since the division right next to theirs was the Storm.

One simple charm and the damage was more or less fixed until the pipe could be inspected.

"Time is money, do not waste mine," said Mammon without looking up.

"How would you like to make even more of it off the idiots in England?"

Mammon looked up. A smirk bloomed across their face upon registering their favorite witch.

"I'm listening."

There was a reason why Rosethorn made the tiny Mist their representative with the goblins. After the incident where she broke in and stole a dragon, her standing with them was tenuous at best. So she reached a compromise...they gave her a way to access her funds without having to go near the bank and in exchange they looked the other way if she happened to use a go-between when she needed to do business with them.

Coincidentally within the first meeting the goblins had declared Mammon an "honorary goblin" considering how quickly they had sorted out the mess that was Rosethorn's vaults and ruthlessly reclaimed all the funds that had been siphoned off while Dumbledore had control of even a fraction of them. Including 'loans' that people evidently had no intention of repaying in this lifetime.

"I heard from Luss that they're still using my name in England...something about 'Savior Sightings' or something equally ridiculous. I wonder how much we can fine them before they take the hint and forget I even existed?"

Mammon cackled.

"You're the new 'Dumbledore'... which means we're going to bleed them dry before they get a clue or figure out why they're losing all their gold."

Mammon had already set up a fine so that Rosethorn was being paid by anyone over the age of seventeen who dared to use her old titles. She wanted the myths of the Girl-Who-Lived to die a painful death, not encourage them. The only reason she hadn't bothered to make up new fines was because she hadn't cared enough to find out what her new titles were among those idiots.

As it was, there had yet to be a single new book on "Rosethorn Potter" or her fictional adventures... Mammon had gone to town with making sure that the requirements to use the name or image went hand in hand with heavy fees and deductions (most of which went to Mammon with a percentage of it going to Rosethorn) to the amusement and approval of the goblins.

It was so bad that there wasn't any actual money to be made and the goblins were all too happy to send their lawyers after anyone who didn't get approval from the "public image manager" of the "Savior".

Mammon certainly didn't object if Rosethorn happened to cuddle with them. She made the Mist enough money that they put up with such indignities without complaint. Besides, it was nice being hugged.


	7. Chapter 7

It said something about her that when she woke up again with yet another massive hangover and found herself in _bed_ with Xanxus that she didn't freak out. What, she wasn't sure, but she wasn't about to ask when her head was pounding so much.

"Go back to sleep," said Xanxus without looking or removing his arm around her waist.

"Gladly," she groaned.

The officers (except for Levi who got roped into watching the base and Bel who was too young) went out to get smashed when Lussuria returned...with _her_ new features.

Lussuria's smile hadn't abated once since the procedure, now that they were 100 percent woman...right down to that time of the month. Rosethorn had laughed when Luss complained about it and said "Welcome to the dark side of being a woman."

Seeing the former man getting hit on by both genders was hilarious... but not as funny as the expressions on people's face when they realized the new _woman_ running the Sun division was in fact Lussuria.

Most of the Varia had adopted the same "don't ask, don't mention it" policy that they used with the other women (including Rosethorn) in the group. Namely that they were men until they were off duty.

As Rosethorn had commented to Timoteo the day she threw him out of Xanxus' office, there were no "women" in the Varia. After one too many female operatives were suddenly married off for political reasons only to end up as widows due to "mysterious" accidents, the official policy became "No Girls Allowed".

It was recommended that the females in the group write their gender as "neutral" and were quietly directed to the "private" bathrooms which were much, much smaller than the communal bathrooms used by most. The women were usually good about sharing those.

Naturally all those who ranked officer had their own private suites. The Elite deserved the best.

Rosethorn threw her insecurities out the window and snuggled closer to the source of heat. Something about Xanxus made her inner dragon a very happy lizard.

When she woke up a second time, it was to find the bed half-empty and her boss getting dressed. Seeing him without a shirt and only a pair of boxers caused several sensations to course through her blood.

One was embarrassment, however that was quickly replaced with quiet lust. Her dragon had made no bones of how she felt about the Boss.

Another was appreciation... Xanxus had many of the same scars she herself sported from a rough upbringing. And like Rosethorn he made it clear he didn't give a shit about who saw them. It was proof he had _survived_ whatever the world tossed at him and came out swinging.

Then there was the quickly growing part of her that she had come to acknowledge as her Cloud-side. It, like her magic, saw something more than the simple lust and baser urges of the female watching a very interesting show.

The Cloud looked at Xanxus and saw it's Sky. One of the rare, rare few who was worthy of it's loyalty and power... that the Sky came in a very nicely shaped package suitable to match it was a bonus.

* * *

 _Xanxus POV_

Xanxus was _not_ oblivious to the fact he was giving his Cloud a show. He wondered if she was even aware she was purring, or the fact her eyes had slipped into the slit-form that her dragon often took.

She definitely appreciated the view. He kept himself from grinning... that meant his plans were definitely working.

He knew that from her past she was unused to _positive_ physical affection... the way she reacted from Lussuria's surprise hugs was very telling. That she was so tactile around Belphegor and Mammon was actually a good sign. It meant she wasn't too far gone and could still be healed.

H put on his clothes and got ready to go to work. He could care less if she slept the rest of the day in his room.

So he was quite surprised when he heard a rustle of cloth from behind followed by the quiet surge of magic. He would have turned, except it was clear what had happened when he felt something scaly coiling around him.

Hexe had gone dragon, unsure of how to respond to the stimulus he was giving and deciding to let her inner beast do it for her.

The dragon _definitely_ knew what it wanted. He could see the outright lust in it's eyes as easily as a human. He smirked, and ran a single hand down one of the horns on her head... the loud rumbling purr was very satisfying. The way her tail coiled around him in a very possessive manner, more so.

He smirked.

There was something deeply satisfying knowing that his Cloud desired him so much that even her _dragon-_ side was this possessive of him. It meant that any chance of someone snatching her up for their own was next to zero.

The fact she had a Sky secondary was of little concern to him. She was _his_ Cloud and no one was taking her from him.

As if allowing her dragon to make it's claim on Xanxus was a signal, Rosethorn became a bit more used to spending time alone with the man.

It wasn't an uncommon sight for her to be napping on the couch in Xanxus' office while he was in there...or for her to be in dragon form, with the Boss leaning against her while using her back leg as the chair.

Once Mammon even convinced them to do a series of recruitment posters...it had taken very little time to set things up for maximum effect.

Belphegor had taken great glee in buffing Rosethorn's horns and shining her scales until she was very impressive indeed. That she crooned with pleasure and happiness under the buffing cloth and oil had made the boy's day.

He adored Rosethorn...around her he could drop his Princely persona and be a regular kid. She treated him as something to be cherished, protected and loved...without being condescending about it or treating him like a child. She knew full well he had a brain and was often more capable than the so-called adults.

The poster Mammon had made to hopefully bolster their numbers with hopeful recruits that they could forge into Quality were a major success...both in the fact that they boosted their ranks and royally pissed off Sawada, who had been trying to poach some of the more promising candidates for CEDEF, which had long since become a joke under his leadership.

The only reason it was still even remotely effective was because of Lal Mirch and everyone knew it. Iemitsu was less than pleased, but what could he do?

After all, how could CEDEF possibly compare to a group that had an actual _dragon_ on the payroll?

Xanxus not only _didn't_ mind the fact she was starting to come closer to him...he was quietly encouraging it.

* * *

It was only a matter of time before she jumped him and then all bets were off.

Actually, there _was_ a betting pool on when he and Hexe would get together already.

It was going to happen eventually, she knew. At some point she would have to go on a mission near England or the UK. Xanxus and Squalo were very good at least sending her anywhere _away_ from that part of Europe.

So when a request from help came along the Varia-exclusive frequency (which changed at random to avoid being hacked) and she was the only one anywhere near enough to fly and aid the ailing team, the decision was easy.

Even if she felt the inevitability of being recognized and that her old life would try to reassert itself closing in around her.

She had put this off long enough, and this time she wasn't alone. Xanxus would _never_ leave her stranded to these particular vipers... he, like the other Officers knew very well what she had gone through. As a sort of therapy to help the nightmares accidentally sparked by Nono's stupidity, Lussuria had her share what she went through with the others. Specifically the Boss, Squalo, Mammon, Belphegor, and Lussuria.

Levi was too devoted to the boss and resentful of the fact she often received more attention than him (never mind the whole embarrassment she caused in front of the boss) to be shown anything.

In all honesty the other Officers were _sick_ of Levi, but the man was too hyper paranoid of the fact that he was easily replaced and often arranged accidents to avoid a similar fate that had befallen Ottabio.

Belphegor had, upon seeing even a fraction of what she had gone through because of "idiot peasants", hissed like a very angry cat and had become extra clingy for weeks after that, as if to assure himself that his big sister was still there and with him. That she believed him capable of handling seeing those memories had made the bond between them even stronger.

It was noted by Mammon and Lussuria that "Prince the Ripper" was a lot more controlled and came out far less since Rosethorn was officially made officer. Having her was giving Bel a stabilizing presence beyond what the Boss could create by being his Sky.

She flew in low, hiding under the cover of night...her dragon had dark scales and with her flying ability it was easy.

Seeing the stark relief on the faces of the squad, Hexe went straight into professional mode.

"What happened?"

"Damn magicals got the drop on us. No one told us the bastards had some sort of alert for Flames. Tried to wipe our minds when they realized we didn't have their sticks," said Midnight. He was a member of Mammon's division.

"Why am I not surprised. How many are out there?"

"Three. They're wearing the robes of Aurors, from what we were told of the group."

"Find a way to get up high and hide. These people have a severe inbreeding problem and won't think to look up. They have the worst habit of underestimating those they consider to be 'muggles'," said Hexe. "I'll deal with the Aurors. Did you at least accomplish the mission?"

"Yeah... we were clearing out when the bastards got the drop on us."

The second she saw who one of the Aurors was, she inwardly sighed.

Of course one of them would be Ron. Her luck was that crappy.

Oh well... it was time to show these fools that their "Savior" was no longer the weak child they had nearly destroyed.

 _Third POV_

The first clue that things had gone absolutely pear shaped came when something flew out of the darkness in a near silent strike and sliced one of Rosen's arms off... it took several seconds to register the fact he was missing half his right arm, but when it did the man began to scream bloody murder at the sight.

There was an almost imperceptible sound of something flying through the darkness of the moonless night. Like some sort of creature hovering at the edge of their senses waiting for a chance to kill them off. Slowly. Quietly. Without a single warning until it was too late.

Ron spotted a flash of purple...and swore.

There was a quiet thump, and he found another member of his squad, dead on the ground.

He instincts barely warned him in time to turn...only to find himself facing familiar green eyes with an unamused expression.

"Rosie?" he said in shock. This couldn't be happening.

"It's Hexe now. You really should have minded your own damn business...five more minutes and the squad would have been gone and you wouldn't have to explain why your own is dead," said Rosethorn coldly. "And before you get any ideas, I'm not coming back. I was just the one closest to the distress call they sent out when you butted your heads into something you shouldn't have."

Ron's eyes fell on the outfit she was wearing. It was identical to the muggles who were risking the Statute with their soul fire. No one had any idea when they figured out how to use that ability, but it was something the Ministry couldn't risk. Not when the war almost exposed them.

An order to capture any soul fire users or erase the knowledge of it had been placed.

It took him a moment to realize Rosethorn had just used legilmency on him.

"You..."

"Figures. You people are so busy trying to pretend everything's normal that you've failed to see the ground is already crumbling around you. I'll have to tell the Boss that we'll need to avoid the UK for a while."

"Rosie, what happened to you?"

"I broke free of the cage you idiots were so insistent on shoving me in. I will not be the pawn of the English enclaves... you bastards can all go hang for all I care," she replied. She briefly turned to look behind him. "Get your men ready to leave. This country sickens me."

Ron was horrified to see the genuine salute from the men...clearly Rosethorn was their superior.

What had happened to her?


	8. Chapter 8

"Well you certainly set the niffler in the vaults," said Mammon dryly.

Rosethorn groaned. Seeing Ron had driven her to drink, though she certainly didn't regret killing his team.

"Fortunately it seems the Auror you spared didn't report it was you that killed them."

Rosethorn contemplated the well stocked liquor cabinet she knew Xanxus had in his office. She wondered if he'd object to her swiping a bottle of something strong.

"Squalo has also banned any missions to the UK for the time being... we don't need to lose operatives because those idiots think they can control Dying Will Flames," said Mammon.

"Good riddance."

Mammon left, and Rosethorn decided to see if Xanxus would let her raid his liquor cabinet...what she had wasn't nearly strong enough.

* * *

Lips clashed in a fierce battle for domination. Hands scrambled to take off each other's clothes as quickly as possible. Emerald met fierce red without hesitation.

Rosethorn had gone in looking for something strong to drink... Xanxus hadn't minded her raiding his cabinet considering she somehow always ended up in his bed afterwards...except this time it seemed Xanxus was _done_ waiting.

It had started as a light caress, but with how wound up she had been from seeing Ron, from being in England for however briefly... she had struck back only to end up caught.

The forceful kiss had made something inside her snap like a brittle twig, and suddenly all the emotions she had kept at bay rushed forward.

Already loosened inhibitions were shot to hell as she damn near tackled Xanxus to the floor with a growl which he easily reciprocated. He had already locked the door before approaching her, so it was unlikely anyone would come in.

Finally there was the closeness she had so craved. The feeling of intimacy and desires reached after the careful dance they had been in.

Xanxus made no bones who was the dominant in this arena...he had far more experience than she did, but he didn't let it consume him. He was agonizingly careful while bringing her to the brink several times...she didn't even feel the sharp, biting pain, too consumed by the lust in her system.

When it was all over and she could think again, she could feel the satisfied smug aura coming off him.

Something had changed between them, not that she particularly cared. It had been a long time coming.

Of course the second she finally bothered to get something to eat, Lussuria noticed it.

"It's about time!"

"Oh god, does everyone know?"

"The betting pool has been exchanging as we speak, at least the second Squalo realized why the door was locked."

Rosethorn looked mortified.

"Oh don't look so upset. Everyone likes you and that this was coming..." said Luss sympathetically. "More importantly..."

"I am not getting into details... not this soon anyway," said Rosethorn.

She noticed the looks from the other Varia members. Most were generally giving her thumbs up with the occasional wink. Was everyone aware of what the boss had planned?

From what Mammon said, in between counting their cut of the bets, that was a big fat yes.

She didn't even try to resist when Xanxus pulled her into his room later that night for another round.

* * *

"What the _fuck_ is this shit?" demanded Xanxus. He had been called to the Iron Fort for _something_ , but it was beginning to look more and more like a set up designed to get his girlfriend captured or at least arrested by the English morons who tried to cage her.

"Watch your language!" snapped Coyote.

"Fuck you," said Xanxus, glaring at him. "I've put a blanket ban on all mission in the UK for the next few years, no exceptions."

"That is unusual. May I ask why?" asked Timoteo evenly.

"Fuckers came up with a new ward _specifically_ to detect Dying Will Flames. They've apparently decided all 'soul fire' users, whether they're magical or not, fall under their jurisdiction. I'm not about to risk any of my men... at least not until the Vindice get pissed off with the Ministries over there and intervene directly," said Xanxus flatly.

Because the Vindice _would_ take exception to the magicals trying to infringe on their turf and get involved sooner rather than later. It was only a matter of time before someone bitched to them and they showed up.

"I see," said Timoteo.

Something about his tone set off all sorts of warning alarms in Xanxus' head.

Officially the Varia was a separate entity from the Vongola familigia. Unofficially the Vongola held the purse strings and thus their loyalty.

He knew damn well the old bastard did _not_ like his girlfriend. Not after she humiliated him and his Storm. Vongola Nono was not used to being challenged, much less by someone considerably younger than he was. That he had always been at odds with Xanxus didn't help at all.

He likely thought Rosethorn was openly corrupting the Wrath against his adopted father, when in fact she was perfectly content to ignore he even _existed_ so long as he stayed the fuck away from her.

Everything was screaming at him that things were only going to get worse from here on out.

 _Two months later..._

"Is it just me, or have the missions dried up?" asked Squalo.

All the higher tier ones were suddenly in short supply, and the lesser contracts were suddenly being funneled to the Mafia Land assignment board. It had been slow at first, but it was becoming increasingly noticeable of late.

"What's going on?" asked Rosethorn.

"Looks like the old bastard doesn't like the fact we're dating. He's trying to put pressure on us," said Xanxus growling.

"Pressure how?"

Xanxus motioned to Squalo's desk which was normally full of missions to be handed out and reports of ones completed.

Except the mission tray was much, much smaller than she remembered seeing.

"...He's trying to make you sweat by removing a chunk of the Alliance missions, thus forcing you to downsize or make cuts," said Rosethorn in annoyance. "Does he honestly think that's going to work?"

"Short term, not really. But if it continues long term..." admitted Squalo. They could handle a lack of missions for a year or so before it started to grate on the men and caused issues.

"Is this really the best he could come up with?" asked Rosethorn unimpressed.

"You don't seem overly concerned," noted Xanxus.

"I get bored and after the war I started making contingency plans. Mammon and I haven't exactly been _idle_ with my vaults since Mammon's been acting as my financial adviser and go-between with the goblins. If he honestly believes cutting off one of our bigger sources of income is going to do more than annoy us, then he has another thing coming," said Rosethorn flatly.

"Go on," said Xanxus, interested. Rosethorn blinked. "Seriously, give me ideas. The more we can do to show that old fucker he's not going to make me cave on making you my girlfriend, the happier I'll be."

She smirked.

"Well Squalo's been more or less going through the motions with his sword training lately and with how busy we've been until now he hasn't really had a chance to challenge himself... so why not let him go on a world-wide training trip for a few years to give him some actual challenges and improve his skills, which coincidentally could double as a recruitment drive. In the meantime I can help with the paperwork so he's not completely swamped when he gets back."

"Voi, I like it!" said Squalo grinning. He was really liking that idea already...he had been so bored with training the mooks who thought themselves swordsmen! "But what about the rest of the idiots?"

"Put their asses through some new training exercises designed to promote communication between the divisions. Maybe even get some of those Lightnings to grow a damn spine. We could rotate the squads around between countries to bring in new languages and poisons... our current stock is only as good as what we can bring in. Letting a castle full of bored assassins and quirks sit around is just asking for trouble, so we train their asses to the ground and get them to think of new skills and ways to use their flames. We are the Elite, we should fucking _act_ like it and keep ahead of the game," said Rosethorn.

"I like it. I like it a lot."

Getting the divisions to act as a cohesive unit would make missions that much easier. If they were going to get some downtime because Nono was being an ass, then they were going to be _productive_ about it and get some of the lower ranks to upgrade their skill levels and keep them at the top of the pack.

"I could help them learn how to deal with magical interference... I'm sure Mammon would help me make amulets to protect against them having their minds wiped... we might even be able to bring in some werewolves... most of them hate the magical communities, especially in the UK, considering the amount of prejudice they give them for a condition that's easily controlled."

Xanxus was very pleased with her ideas. Not only would it keep the Varia as the Elite of the Elite, but it also kept the idiots from getting ideas out of boredom. And it meant they would use the downtime to actually get things done to make them even more dangerous to their enemies.

Xanxus kissed his girlfriend on the head.

"Love you."

Rosethorn blushed while Squalo mock gagged.

"What do we do if the old fucker tries to cut us off from the Vongola's funds?"

"Squalo, what part of 'I have been conspiring with Mammon for the past couple of years with my very large and extensive amount of gold' did you not get? If he pisses us off _too_ much we can turn the tables right back on him by cutting the Varia away from the Vongola completely until they get a new Don," said Rosethorn rolling her eyes. "Vongola Nono's control over us is only as much as we let him. He has no idea what sort of trouble he'll be in for if he thinks we're going to let him walk all over us. I'm a Black... we don't take this sort of thing sitting down."

Xanxus looked even happier hearing that, as did Squalo. If Timoteo pissed them off _too_ much they had the option of breaking off until the Vongola got their shit together. It made a warm and fuzzy feeling come over them both...neither of them particularly liked Nono with how he treated Xanxus like a feral tiger he had taken in and expected him to suddenly act like a pampered house cat.

If Nono noticed that his ploy to make the Varia sweat was being rendered completely ineffective by Rosethorn, he made no show of it.

Xanxus was particularly smug as Rosethorn had gone over the Varia contract with Mammon and made up a standard rate of pay for all members not currently on assignment or sick leave.

The flat rate covered basic rent and utilities, even if it forced some of the men to learn how to make a proper budget and stick with it. Mammon offered classes on the basics of budgeting for free with far too much amusement on the matter.

The issue of food was deftly taken care of from a rather amusing source... some of the investments Rosethorn had made involved large farms that had both magical and mundane crops and livestock. It was a simple matter of transporting the food through judicious use of house elves that were already attached to the properties, which meant that there was no worry for sabotaged products. Frozen foods and spices would have to be imported, but the basic necessities were more or less covered...coincidentally this made Mammon very happy since it meant the food budget was cut considerably and thus could be allocated to other areas without impacting standards.

Nono had absolutely no idea that Rosethorn and Mammon had been quietly cutting them off from any dependence to the Vongola, even if it meant breaking multiple laws to do it. By this point knowledge of the magical enclaves was more or less standard (as was the reason for the ban on all mission in the UK for the foreseeable future) among the Varia. Most of them considered magic a 'weird application of Mist Flames' and was thus ignored so long as things didn't get too crazy or weird.

If and when Nono tried to put the screws to them by putting even _more_ restrictions on them other than cutting off the number of decent missions available, he was going to be in for a very rude surprise to find the entire group already self-sufficient to the point they didn't _need_ the Vongola to stay active.

No one did payback plots better than a Black, and Rosethorn was a firm believer of a back up plan whenever it was possible. She had grown out of the reckless Gryffindor idiocy and into the cunning Slytherin that the hat had suggested all those years ago.

And then something happened that set off an entirely _new_ issue no one saw coming.

Rosethorn was a magically bound godparent. She knew this, as she had signed the paperwork and made the same oaths Sirius did all those years ago, when Remus and Tonks asked her to take care of their only son Theodore.

So when she started getting pings on her magic that alerted her that her godson was in trouble, and more importantly close by when he was _supposed_ to be in England... well, she decided to do the responsible thing.

She tracked down where the 'ping' was coming from through trial and error (which took a week) and called in the reinforcements.

This was mafia territory. Her godson should _not_ be in Italy at all, much less in an area she knew very well was not home to a "nice" famiglia. In fact this was one of the last Esterneo territories which was one of the _worst_ ones to have gotten their hands on her metamorph godson, if the rumors she heard about them were even remotely true.

It was highly unlikely the Vindice would get involved if those idiots did have Teddy. They knew about magic and all it would take was a simple spell to confirm she was his godmother for them to drop any damages she caused. No way in hell would Andromeda hand over her last remaining connection to her daughter.


	9. Chapter 9

Mukuro was honestly curious about the small toddler more or less shoved into their section of the cells. Ken had more or less taken over caring for the kid.

What made Mukuro curious was the fact that the boy was clearly _not_ Italian and his coloring kept changing. So far he had managed to turn both of his eyes the same color as Mukuro...without the kanji, but still. His hair had even changed to match Mukuro's, to his amusement.

Chikusa and Ken had grown fond of the brat, who thankfully didn't cry too much and was generally a happy little thing that was unafraid of Mukuro in the least. Outside of taking blood from the kid, the scientists had yet to start the usual experiments. That could soon change, but until then they would protect the kid as best they could.

So when the alarms went off, Mukuro only had to share a look with the other two before they went to find the closest thing to cover and hide the kid between them.

There were several explosions, and the scientists outside the door were scrambling and trying to maintain order. Hearing the gas, Mukuro went to try and create some sort of barrier...only to find one already made. The little one in Ken's lap was giggling happily with sparks coming off his hands.

Mukuro stared. How the hell did the kid manage to make a barrier?

Suddenly the door flew off it's hinges and slammed into the wall. Mukuro went to shield the others... he was the best fighter, even if he didn't have a weapon.

A very pissed off red haired woman barely in her twenties peered around... her eyes froze when she saw them.

"Teddy!"

"Auntie!" said Teddy, reaching out for her. He hadn't really _met_ his godmother, but his grandma had shown him several pictures so he knew what she looked like.

Mukuro stood between the woman and 'Teddy'. He wasn't about to trust an adult.

Rather than reclaim the toddler from their possession, she eyed them for a moment.

"What's the hold up?" demanded a man with fierce red eyes and a terrifying aura.

"We're going to have extras with us," she replied. She looked to Mukuro. "Can you keep up with us? We're not exactly going to leave this place standing."

Mukuro blinked.

"You're taking us with you?"

"Teddy seems to like you. That's enough for me...besides there's no way I could leave children in this hellhole after what we found in those labs. It's your choice," she replied, looking him in the eye.

Considering they had limited means of fighting the adults, and the woman was willing to let them keep protecting the little one that so fascinated him, the choice was rather easy.

Mukuro and the others kept close to the odd woman, with Ken carrying "Teddy" who seemed very happy to see her. He definitely knew her.

"Who are you?"

"Officially my code name is Hexe. You can call me Rosethorn, or 'Rose'. I'm Teddy's godmother... the second I found out he might be in Italy I went looking for him."

Mukuro blinked at that.

"How did you know he was in Italy?"

"I could sense it. He's supposed to be in England with his grandmother, not here," said Rosethorn darkly. "When I find out how they learned about him I'm going to be having words with people."

There was the sharp hot-cold chill of the Vindice. They had arrived to find out why the Varia was going on an unsanctioned massacre of the Esterneo famiglia.

" _ **Exactly why are you exterminating this famiglia? There were no approved missions for this group,"**_ said the lead Vindice.

Rosethorn pulled out a slim file with her godson's picture and assigned number.

"They kidnapped my godson from England. I am magically bound to keep him safe in place of his parents and guardians if no one else is available. I was alerted that he was not with his grandmother over a week ago and tracked him down here. Upon learning they were experimenting on _children_ using items deemed illegal by the Cosa Nostra, it was decided to shut down this base with extreme prejudice," she replied evenly.

The Vindice were silent. One of them waved a hand over her and the children behind her... Teddy and Rosethorn glowed for a moment, confirming there was a magical bond like the one she spoke of between them.

" _ **Do you have proof of illegal experimentation?"**_

Rosethorn pulled out a bag which had a familiar gun and several bullets. Mukuro growled at the sight of them... he had been shot more than once with those damn things.

The Vindice accepted the gun and ammo and saw the way Mukuro reacted to the sight of them. The fact Rosethorn produced the other files showing that they had been _using_ said ammo on the boy behind her was just another nail in their coffin.

" _ **Very well. We shall apprehend all remaining Esterneo Family and place judgment."**_

"One moment. The trio behind me were actively protecting my godson from danger despite the fact they were clearly being tortured and experimented on by their own family. I would like to repay the blood debt owed between us by adopting them into my family," said Rosethorn.

The Vindice looked at her.

" _ **Which family?"**_

"The Ancient and Noble House of Black. My godson and I are both members of it, and I am the current Head of the family," said Rosethorn immediately. She pulled out an ornate ring that looked very old and very impressive. One confirmation that it was authentic later, and the Vindice nodded.

" _ **Acceptable. However any infractions carried out by them from this point on will be on your head as well as theirs,"**_ he replied.

"I understand," said Rosethorn.

The Vindice disappeared to capture the survivors of the labs...not that Rosethorn and Xanxus left many alive.

"What just happened?" said Ken confused, adjusting his hold on Teddy.

"I just made sure you wouldn't end up in another family who wouldn't know the first thing about what you went through and gave you a new home," deadpanned Rosethorn. "I also made damn sure that the idiots who caused this mess won't be getting away with it anytime soon. You're now officially stuck with me until you're eighteen."

"Auntie, up!" demanded Teddy.

Rosethorn bent down. Ken reluctantly handed over the kid...then again his arms were getting tired. Teddy happily transferred to the woman, who lead them outside and into a car.

Once they were driving away from the now annihilated base, Rosethorn turned to the trio. Xanxus (the terrifying man with red eyes) was driving and not really concerned about his girlfriend and her new minions.

"Alright, so introductions first. As I said before, my name is Rosethorn. This is Theodore, or Teddy."

"Chikusa Kakimoto," said the ever silent boy with glasses and a barcode on his cheek.

"Ken Joushima," said the feral boy.

"Mukuro Rokudo. Why did you save us?" asked Mukuro, eyeing her with suspicion.

Rosethorn snorted.

"One, because you were openly protecting Teddy despite the hell you've obviously been through and the fact that you clearly heard a fight outside. Two, because I've had eyes like yours when I was your age and the last thing I want on my conscience is setting a trio of survivors loose from a sheltered environment on an unsuspecting famiglia. You're almost guaranteed to have PTSD at the very least, and the way you're reacting right now tells me that having you live with another mafia family is just _asking_ for a disaster to happen," she deadpanned.

"You think we were sheltered?!" hissed Mukuro angrily.

"Do you know how to cook? How to forage for food? How to build or find proper shelter from bad weather? I said you were sheltered, not that you were _pampered_ ," she countered.

Mukuro eased up a bit on that. She did raise a valid point.

"What are you planning to do with the brats?" asked Xanxus from up front.

"First I'm going to find out what happened to Andromeda... no way she let Teddy go without a fight. Then I'm going to work out an arrangement with Mammon to let these three stay in the castle."

Xanxus glared at her.

"We're not a fucking babysitting service."

"Belphegor," she countered. "If Mukuro doesn't have the same blood-thirst that Bel does, I'll give up magic."

Xanxus eyed the Mist brat...and silently conceded her point.

"Besides, can you imagine the entertainment of seeing the mooks getting their ass handed to them by _more_ kids? Their ego can barely handle having to be respectful to Bel," said Rosethorn smirking.

That had him smirking evilly at the mere idea. So long as the three didn't cause problems, he could turn a blind eye to their presence.

* * *

Rosethorn was _beyond_ pissed upon learning what really happened.

Apparently some idiot in the Ministry decided to up the ante when it came to pissing off the werewolves and forcibly separated Teddy from Andromeda. After all, his father was a werewolf which made him fair game according to those idiots.

So when one of the Esterneo saw the lonely little boy practicing his gift, it was only natural they'd kidnap him. It was pathetically easy, since Andromeda wasn't there to protect him.

Andromeda was beyond _livid_ upon finding out her grandson had been kidnapped. Worse, no one in the Ministry was willing to help her find out where he was taken.

Rosethorn was waiting by the two-way mirror she had Mammon get... the Mist had their contacts locate the very pissed off Andromeda to deliver the other half.

The second she saw Andromeda's face, Rosethorn winced. The older woman looked absolutely _terrible_.

" _Rosie. This is unexpected."_

"Gramma!" said Teddy, reaching out for Andromeda. Her mouth dropped with shock, before absolute relief filled her features.

" _Praise be to Loki..."_ said Andromeda, slumping with relief.

"It's a good thing I took those oaths. The second I felt the connection go off I went looking for him and managed to get him back before anything too damaging was done to him. I destroyed any samples the mundanes might have taken and their notes... they only had time to take blood samples," said Rosethorn.

They were about to start their experiments by the next morning, so it was a very good thing she had found him so fast. She was not one to sit idle when her family was being threatened.

" _How have you been Rosie?"_

"Better than ever. I found a place where I can belong without being forced to act as the 'savior'. They don't give a damn about my old status around here."

" _So the rumors that you took out two Aurors..."_

"Are true. I only spared Ron because of the fact we _used_ to be friends. I didn't want to break Molly."

" _Where are you now?"_

"Still in Europe, but nowhere near the UK. I will say it's close to Rome though," said Rosethorn.

Which was true... Rome was close enough to Italy to give a general idea of where she was, without giving any actual detail to her real location.

Andromeda slumped.

" _What do you plan to do?"_

"My boyfriend agreed to let me keep Teddy here with me... if he was kidnapped once because of the stupidity of the English, then it'll only happen again. Besides I'm more or less desk bound for a while until his second-in-command comes back from a training trip. If you come here and want to spend time with him, give me a heads up and we can have supervised visits... we take security _very_ seriously around here."

No one knew more ways around security than a Varia Assassin, so having them protect Teddy was only natural. He was safer with Rosethorn than he was with Andromeda.

Especially since Belphegor had taken to the idea of being a "big brother" to the "little wolf"... if only to make his big sister happy.

"Gramma!" said Teddy insistently. Rosethorn smiled and put the mirror on the wall close to where Teddy could be eye-level with it while sitting in his chair. Andromeda happily talked with her grandson for the first time since he was taken from her, relieved beyond belief that Rosethorn had fulfilled her duties as godmother and retrieved him when she knew he was in trouble.

She knew Rosethorn would keep him safe, and damn what the Ministries had to say about it.

Rosethorn let Teddy and Andromeda talk while she did her paperwork, at least until Teddy began to tire and needed a nap.

She gently picked up her godson and went to find Mukuro and the others.

Mukuro was _definitely_ the ringleader of their little group and was very distrustful of anyone older than them. However, Rosethorn had at least set the groundwork for being "potentially trustworthy" once they were back at the Varia castle.

Rosethorn, despite being Cloud officer, had not really made full use of her private quarters. They weren't nearly the opulent size of Xanxus' own room, but they were still much bigger than the rooms most grunts or captains got. Add in magic and she practically had a second room.

Once Lussuria had fussed over the group, especially the tired Teddy, Rosethorn had set about making a second 'room' in her own quarters, and brought up one big queen sized bed and several pillows. After Mukuro and the others were fed, cleaned and given new clothing that fit, she surprised the leery trio of older boys with their own space.

 _Flashback..._

"This is now your room. You may move freely and redecorate as you wish, so long as you don't destroy the walls or anything. This is going to be _your_ area, and if I need to get any of you, I will send a patronus in to call you out."

"A what?" said Mukuro, staring at the bed. It was fluffier than anything they had before, and there was only _one._ The room was big, bright and the ceiling was showing the night sky. It almost looked like it would rain right on them.

Rosethorn conjured Prongs.

"This is Prongs. If you see him, then it means you need to come out or I need to talk to you. This is going to be _your_ space, and none of the adults in the castle will ever have permission to be in it without _your_ consent," said Rosethorn rather bluntly.

Mukuro stared at her. Ken and Chikusa's eyes were wide.

"Why's there only one bed?" asked Ken.

Rosethorn smiled gently.

"This is a new situation for you all. I highly doubt you'd want to sleep in separate beds so soon...and that bed is big enough for all three of you to sleep comfortably even if one of you tries to kick the others off it. I know all too well what it's like to be shoved in a new situation with no say about what happens around me or being ordered by 'well-meaning' adults who don't actually take your own opinion into account."

Fifth year had been a living hell for her. Losing Sirius had just topped off a very crappy year.

Mukuro looked at her distrustfully.

"Why are you doing this for us?"

Rosethorn bent down slightly so she was eye level with him. Something in her green eyes was so familiar that it made Mukuro shiver from the intensity of it.

"Mukuro, I know you have absolutely no reason to trust me. I don't expect you to suddenly believe in good intentions without the other party demanding something from you in return. I only ask that you work with me until things settle down and you figure out for yourself whether I'm anything like those fools who hurt you and your friends," she said with sincerity. "This is my way of giving you a place where you can feel safe and in control for once... if anyone comes in here without your consent or knowledge, then you have my full permission to be as nasty as you want to the fools. If they come in here then they likely deserve it."

Mukuro wasn't the only one staring at her.

"Even if I kill them?" he asked.

Rosethorn snorted.

"We're the Varia. Elite Assassins. Anyone that ends up dead from a kid without any actual _training_ to be a threat doesn't deserve to be called Quality in the first place. If they're smart they'll ignore you and your friends or treat you like Belphegor... he's about your age and he's a vicious little brat. In short if they come in here without permission, then anything that happens to them will firmly fall under the category of 'Not My Problem," she said rather cheerfully.

In other words, he wasn't going to get in trouble for defending his territory or his friends.

Mukuro was inordinately pleased upon hearing this... especially when, after one particularly stupid mook broke in to prank the Cloud officer on a dare, he wasn't reprimanded or punished for messily killing the idiot the second he realized the man was in the room Rosethorn had given them.

If anything, he was 'rewarded' by being tapped personally by the Mist Arcobaleno as their new apprentice. Mammon had taken _one_ look at what he did with his Mist and had practically demanded that they be allowed to teach him how to be even more of a vicious little bastard.

 _Flashback end..._

Chikusa took one look at the sleepy Teddy and took him from Rosethorn's hands. Part of the reason why she was earning their trust was because she let them keep protecting and caring for Teddy like a little brother. The fact she trusted them enough to care for her godson had helped their own trust in her. That she actually kept her word had come as a genuine surprise.

Ken yawned as he curled up on the massive bed. Teddy quickly curled up next to him and the two laid down for a long nap. Chikusa would go down to the private garage later to continue his lessons on vehicle maintenance. The quiet Rain had found his niche and was quickly becoming a favorite of the mechanics... he picked things up very quickly and was an attentive listener.

Lussuria had more or less taken Ken as a student, upon learning the boy was a very interesting Sun. Especially with his animal paths.


	10. Chapter 10

For the most part the addition of four kids to the castle was more or less ignored after a few months. Mostly because the assassins learned that Teddy was firmly "off-limits" to the usual antics of bored killers unless you wanted a very pissed off Rosethorn in full on dragon mode about to flash fry your ass.

The Mist, Rain and Sun she had rescued were semi off-limits as well... their room definitely was if you didn't want to end up dead in increasingly messy ways by a pissed off Mist.

As Rosethorn had predicted, most of the Varia had quickly come to equate Mukuro with the same kind of leery respect they gave Belphegor. He was a murderous little psycho barely kept restrained because he respected someone more dangerous than he was, and if you set him off then you were on your own. It was made even worse because unlike Belphegor, Mukuro had actual _minions_ who wouldn't hesitate to act as his back up and followed his orders obediently without question.

And this was all before one took into account the fact Mammon had taken a personal interest in the kid.

Ironically, the Varia was actually the best place for Mukuro and his little minions. If only because they knew better than to turn their backs on him or treat him like an "innocent" child. No one who could match Prince the Ripper's body count was "innocent".

Besides, he bore a weird resemblance to Daemon Spade, the Primo's traitorous Mist Guardian. If that wasn't a sign he was a dangerous brat worthy of leery respect, nothing was!

Between Rosethorn's slow but steady methods of gaining Mukuro's trust, and the fact she knew all too well some of the hell they had gone through, Mukuro and his friends were making the slow transition from "dangerously unpredictable" to simply "dangerous with major trust issues".

Teddy was firmly considered part of Rosethorn's "territory" and was off limits. The only reason no one commented on the fact there was a kid in the castle who _wasn't_ a psychotic brat who could murder people on a dime was because he was usually kept occupied and out of sight by the officers.

Mostly Lussuria and amusingly enough Mammon.

* * *

It was rather pathetic how long it took Vongola Nono to hear about the 'strays' Rosethorn had brought into the Varia. The boys had been there for close to a year before Sawada caught wind of Mukuro and Belphegor playing "who can make the biggest blood splatter pattern" with some idiot hit men who hadn't had the brains to run like hell in the opposite direction when they saw the Varia Storm.

Iemitsu had promptly bitched to Nono the _second_ he heard there was now a second child murdering on the Varia's payroll. One who was most certainly _not_ an Officer, considering it was pretty clear the kid was a Mist and Mammon was very much alive.

Timoteo descended on the Varia castle with a heavily disappointed look on his face. He barely tolerated Belphegor's presence as Varia Storm.

"What do you want?" grumbled Xanxus, filling out his paperwork. With the missions being restricted, he had a lot less of it bothering his desk.

Most of the assassins had adjusted to the new schedule with the knowledge that they were being given permission to learn new skills, languages and to generally try out new tricks with their Flames and weapons. If they were actually productive with their new downtime they could earn the right to be part of the limited missions available.

Considering Rosethorn had made it her personal mission to make the lives of anyone who didn't find something _productive_ to do if they weren't on a mission absolutely miserable through surprise training or hellish pranks, most found a way to occupy their time and fast. As a result, there had yet to be any serious altercations due to boredom.

And if things got too bad, the Black family owned a sizable plot of land which was more or less a magical sanctuary for rare and valuable creatures. Rosethorn was not above setting bored Varia Quality assassins loose to deal with the inevitable poachers... if they were stupid enough to try and break onto Black-owned territory, then they were too stupid to live in her opinion. And she'd give a bonus for every confirmed poacher "dealt" with in a permanent manner.

"I have heard some disconcerting rumors of late."

Xanxus paused in his paperwork to give him a flat look.

"If you're taking about Hexe's strays, then you can get lost. They're not on our payroll and the Mist brat is Mammon's apprentice," said Xanxus bluntly.

"Strays?" repeated Timoteo in disbelief. There was more than _one_ new child in the Varia?!

"Some stupid fuckers kidnapped her godson. She retrieved him with extreme prejudice, and in the process adopted three strays who were with him. One works in the maintenance department fixing up the vehicles, one's training under Luss, and the third one was practically snatched up by Mammon the first chance the miser brat had," said Xanxus flatly. "None of which are being sent out on missions or have anything to do with Varia's day-to-day operations."

Translation: The kids are _not_ your problem, so get lost.

"I find it highly unsettling that there are children in the Varia at all," said Timoteo.

Xanxus glared at him.

"It was either Hexe took them in, or let some unsuspecting famiglia take in a trio of kids who have every reason to hate the mafia and a Mist with enough skill to cause a massacre. Better to have that vindictive little shit under the watch of people who know how to handle it than some idiot who won't see him coming," said Xanxus bluntly.

"Kufufufu... you say the nicest things," said Mukuro, startling Timoteo greatly.

"And you're still a creepy little bastard who looks and acts way too much like Daemon Spade to be a coincidence," said Xanxus without hesitation.

"Belphegor's report," said Mukuro.

"Go get cleaned up. Mammon gets bitchy enough when you skip out of training to play with the prince trash," said Xanxus.

"Kufufufu..."

Timoteo looked rather pale. Suddenly his son's comment about letting that sort of child "loose" on an unsuspecting famiglia made far too much sense. The aura alone on that boy was deeply unsettling, and if you add on top of that the fact he was a strong and unhinged Mist... it was a recipe for disaster. It really didn't help that the boy did bear a rather strong resemblance to Daemon Spade.

"I see."

"Besides, it's not like we've let Hexe's godson anywhere near the more dangerous weapons," said Xanxus flippantly.

"...You let your Cloud keep her godson in the castle?" asked Timoteo in disbelief.

"The kid's a potential kidnapping target and she doesn't want to track him down a second time due to the stupidity of the magical enclaves. It's not like we're going to teach him how to kill people until he's past puberty. We have enough problems with Belphegor and the creepy Mist brat," said Xanxus bluntly.

The door opened up a second time, revealing a four-to-five year old little boy with some rather unusual hair coloring and different colored eyes.

(Teddy loved the idea of having mismatched eyes so much that he stuck with it, to the delight and amusement of Mukuro and Rosethorn.)

The boy scampered up to Xanxus, who didn't even bat an eye at his presence...though he did pause in his paperwork to pick the kid up one-handed and put him in his lap.

"He is now your problem for the next few hours. Some idiots hurt themselves in training so Luss is a bit busy for a while," said Rosethorn dryly.

"You owe me for this later," said Xanxus.

Rosethorn rolled her eyes with a smirk.

"Once the little wolf is firmly in bed then we'll 'talk'," she replied amused.

This was becoming the most surreal moment of Timoteo's life. His angry and often violent son with a _child_ in his lap and treating the kid like his own. The little Mist child, happily sat in Xanxus' lap and babbled about everything and anything while his hair and eyes shifted through every color under the sun, with Xanxus making the appropriate sounds that he 'understood' what the child was saying.

He would honestly say he had never thought he would see Xanxus acting so responsible.

Timoteo left, his view of Xanxus having taken a rather strong hit. It was hard to equate the violent and angry child he had taken in with the paternal and responsible version in that office.

* * *

"Aren't you just adorable!" squealed Daniela.

Rosethorn had made it her personal mission to introduce Teddy and the older trio to Daniela. Partly to show Mukuro there were some decent mafioso out there, but mostly to get them out of the castle before anyone went stir crazy. Daniela was all too happy to stuff Ken full of food, let Chikusa raid her personal library, and tell Mukuro stories of blood and death from her experiences in World War Two...in between cooing at Teddy, who seemed to think of the older woman like another grandmother.

Rosethorn couldn't wait to introduce Andromeda to Daniela. It was sure to be hilarious, if only because there was a high chance the two would get along like a house on fire and make Timoteo's life that much more interesting.

Xanxus was just enjoying some time away from his paperwork. After seeing the way he interacted with Teddy the old man had started to filter a few more missions their way.

It didn't mean they were going to simply _forget_ the fact he was the reason most of them had dried up in the first place.

"I've been meaning to ask... would it be too much trouble for you to babysit occasionally?" asked Rosethorn hopefully.

Daniela's eyes sparkled.

"You mean I get to spend more time with this little cutie?"

"And these three. Since they're not _officially_ Varia members, for all that Mukuro is Mammon's apprentice, we have to do a rotation so we don't hear any complaining from your son."

"I'd be delighted to babysit them...and any future great-grandchildren you produce on one condition."

"What?"

"You invite me to the wedding," said Daniela.

"Wedding?" repeated Rosethorn, blushing. Mukuro's eyes gleamed with potential blackmail.

He was a very...attentive...student when it came to blackmail and learning how to make people dance like puppets on a string purely out of amusement.

Xanxus snickered at the look on her face.

 _A few hours later..._

"So grandson, when are you going to properly propose to your Cloud?" asked (read: demanded) Daniela.

"Haven't found a proper ring yet. Been planning on it once Squalo gets back from his training trip," said Xanxus. Like hell was he letting anyone else snatch Rosethorn up.

"Would you like some of my considerable expertise...and my ability to call Talbot up for some ideas?" she asked grinning.

Xanxus slumped with relief.

"Please. If I conspire with you then she won't know what's coming until after I propose," said Xanxus. She had so few _pleasant_ surprises in her life.

Daniela smirked.

Timoteo still had nightmares of the _last_ time his mother had gotten bored and decided to liven up the Vongola's social circles. The amount of rumors he had to deal with alone gave him headaches, when she wasn't visiting to annoy him and see her other grandsons.

Daniela wanted to rub her hands together and cackle.

Helping her grandson plan a wedding and springing it on her son at the last minute without any warning was going to be _fun_. And considering Xanxus was still angry with Timoteo, he'd probably enjoy pulling this sort of thing on his adopted father.

Now, about those little ones Rosethorn had all but adopted...

* * *

 _Two days later..._

Rosethorn took _one_ look at what Daniela and the three older children were doing before turning around and walking away. Xanxus was relaxing while playing with Teddy, who found him endlessly fascinating. Apparently Daniela was already very well aware that her grandson was actually good with small children.

She did not want to know what the older woman was teaching those three and would happily plead ignorance so long as she was given enough warning to set up cameras for evidence.

As it later turned out, Daniela was introducing the boys to the fun world of paint bombs and delayed traps that allowed one to establish an alibi. Mukuro and Chikusa took to the lessons like ducks to water, while Ken just enjoyed the mess they made.

Especially since Xanxus came to the decision it was a great way to test the lower ranks on their situational awareness...if they couldn't find and disable to bombs in time then they got stuck with the clean up. Having the all clear to prank the weaker members had made Mukuro's day... he took perverse pleasure in adding little things like all-day itching powder and in one memorable occasion _glitter dust_ to the bombs.

On the plus side, the mooks have never been more motivated to rise through the ranks... only those who fell below a certain point were allowed to be targeted with any consistency, so if they managed to work their way above that point they were left alone. Mostly. Unless Rosethorn got bored and decided to do the pranks herself.

It really was ironic, but bringing Mukuro and his friends in the Varia had done _wonders_ as a sort of make-shift therapy.

Not only were the elite assassins far more aware of Mukuro's rather...delicate...mental equilibrium when it came to the mafia, but his rather terrifying friendship with Belphegor was actually helping him vent in a semi-healthy manner all the pent up rage and fury he felt about the experiments.

After all, the people Belphegor went after usually deserved it or were far from innocent themselves.

Add into the fact that Rosethorn was making great strides in helping Mukuro _vocalize_ what he was feeling and actually understood him, and the boy was quickly becoming something close to stable. Or at the very least could fake it while coming up with some truly horrifying revenge pranks, since they were far more amusing than simply killing people who pissed him off.

Ken and Chikusa had adjusted quickly, once they realized Mukuro was actually calming down about what happened. That, and Teddy was positively adorable with the way he got his "big brothers" to play with him.

Rosethorn stretched at her desk. Taking over for Squalo so he could focus on improving his sword skills was a headache, but not one she disliked. It gave her an excuse to stick around the castle and keep an eye on the kids...most of whom had more or less be accepted as part of the very odd family that was the Varia.

Most people wouldn't see it that way, thinking the assassins were all bloodthirsty and cutthroat, but they were looking at the whole thing all wrong.

The Varia was actually one of the _weirdest_ , most dysfunctional families she had ever seen. And in a bizarre twist of fate, it actually worked!

It took in those who wouldn't fit into society anywhere else, and gave them a place to belong. And with someone like Xanxus, who honestly did _not_ give a damn about what he considered little things (like Lussuria's previous gender confusion or Belphegor's age when he first joined) so long as you could do your job competently, most infighting was kept to a bare minimum.

If anything Rosethorn could honestly claim CEDEF was the most dysfunctional and chaotic out of the Vongola's external groups. At least the Varia maintained their own strange sort of order.

CEDEF had been falling apart ever since that moron Sawada took over. That fool was not competent when it came to desk work and was barely tolerable at being a field commander. Why Nono thought appointing _him_ External Adviser was a smart move consistently baffled her to no end.

She stretched at her desk.

Things had definitely taken a turn for the better since she infiltrated the Varia. She wouldn't change it for anything.


	11. Chapter 11

Belphegor was sick as a dog and hating every second of it. His fever was bad enough that Luss had more or less banned any visitors, which meant Mukuro and the others couldn't visit at all and make things even slightly tolerable.

He had never expected to find a best friend and co-conspirator, but then Rosethorn had brought Mukuro and the two had just clicked. It helped that Belphegor had _never_ claimed to be mafia... he was a prince and therefor above such petty things. He just liked to kill the peasants and remind them of their place.

Which, oddly enough, had only endeared him to the vengeful Mist. He didn't care about the fact Bel was a prince and more or less humored his titles. The two of them had gotten into some rather impressive rows on what Mukuro's own status was, until Rosethorn had found out and put her foot down.

Mukuro was actually a ward of an Ancient and Noble house, thus putting him on an almost equal level as Belphegor. A fact he hadn't known until that point, nor had he cared.

Belphegor coughed up more phlegm...he hated being sick. And were those polka dots he was seeing?

Whimpering as his fever spiked again, he barely registered Lussuria bustling over to him with concern... the Sun would have given him medicine, but his Storm Flames would have eaten right through them with little to no effect.

He curled into himself, wanting the worst of this to be over. He didn't even realize he was instinctively calling out for one person in particular in his native tongue.

" _Mommy..."_

Lussuria gave Belphegor a look. The poor kid was absolutely _miserable_ and had one of the worst fevers she had ever seen. She had no idea who Belphegor was calling for, but could make an educated guess.

The infirmary door opened and Luss was ten seconds away from ordering the newcomer out...until they registered who it was.

Rosethorn _hated_ the infirmary. Everyone knew she had an aversion to the place that was actually quite impressive and made it easier to relate to her.

So for her to walk right in and promptly go straight to Belphegor's side was pretty big.

Belphegor whined, and called out for someone in his native tongue. Rosethorn was at his side in an instant, running her hand through his hair (Luss had already removed the crown and put it to the side), crooning something in the same language.

Seeing the little prince curl into her side and settle, Luss relaxed. Everyone knew how maternal Rosethorn was. Hearing Belphegor whine and repeat the same word again, Luss couldn't help but ask...

"Who is he calling for?"

"He's repeating the word 'mommy' in Carpathian," replied Rosethorn. "Is it alright if I lay next to him? I might be able to siphon off some of his excess body heat."

"Go for it. It's highly doubtful you'd catch what he has since this was poison based and any comfort you could give would be a big help considering how miserable the poor thing is," said Luss.

The second she laid next to him, Belphegor was practically clinging to her like an oversized and slightly lumpy teddy bear. He sighed and nuzzled into her side.

"Poor little princeling... being sick sucks," said Rosethorn with open sympathy, stroking his hair or rubbing his back.

Luss checked Belphegor's temperature an hour later, and was relieved to see that it had gone down enough that the danger level had passed.

She also wasn't surprised to see the Boss in there after dinner, putting cooling cloths on his Storm's head. Just being there was helping Bel cope with the nasty fever he had, which thankfully broke by morning. Rosethorn stayed by his side the entire night, crooning in some bird language she knew that was ridiculously soothing.

Of course there were some repercussions.

Belphegor was not good at communicating with others, much less connecting with people and not trying to kill them later. He was beyond socially awkward (though he had gotten much better with the introduction of Mukuro and his brothers), and had a habit of keeping things bottled up.

So the fact he had been so sick that he had finally let his actual feelings slip towards Rosethorn had made him rather tense around her.

At least until he called her "Mommy" in his native tongue by accident again without realizing it until it was too late.

"Yes, my little princeling?"

Belphegor relaxed considerably, as the tension drained out of his shoulders. Rosethorn wrapped him up in a hug and stroked his hair, and he happily nuzzled into her side.

It was one of the most adorable things Luss had ever seen, and one of the rare times Mammon took multiple pictures without the chance of blackmail being involved later.

Funnily enough this opened up the floodgates for Mukuro and his group to start calling her mother as well. Rosethorn had practically acted like their mother since she rescued them and Teddy already thought of her as a replacement for the one he lost.

It was nice seeing them heal after the trauma they went through. Mukuro certainly relished the quiet hugs she gave when he knew others wouldn't see them.

Ken wasn't as reserved, and usually dragged Chikusa into it, not that the quiet Rain minded in the least.

* * *

"What exactly is this?"

"What it looks like. You're Belphegor's partner, which automatically makes you the Mist division's Second. If anything happens to Mammon, which isn't likely, or they retire you automatically take their spot as Mist officer. Unless you harmonize with someone, but the odds of that are pretty low," said Xanxus bluntly.

This meant Mammon could focus more on administrative and accounting (which they preferred) as well as the information network they had been forced to sideline, thus keeping the Varia ahead of the incompetence that was CEDEF intelligence. Xanxus couldn't stand Sawada for multiple reasons, and he refused to let the man's idiocy cripple the Vongola.

It also meant Mukuro would start being _paid_ to go on trips with Belphegor and given incentive to keep Prince the Ripper on a damn leash...or at least hide the aftermath until Bel could clean up his own mess.

"Go find Luss and get outfitted with the official uniform. Your little brothers are going to stay with their divisions... I have it on good authority the little Rain was practically adopted by the mechanics," said Xanxus amused.

Mukuro accepted the paperwork and headed to the Sun division, still in shock.

This was the biggest show of trust from Xanxus and the others he had ever gotten. He didn't mind being put on the same level as Belphegor... it was a compliment considering his rank. He knew perfectly well why they did it too.

Some things left permanent scars.

But being made the second-in-command of the Mist division (according to the papers he'd be more field work oriented while Mammon handled the administrative side) meant that they were willing to trust him. To put their lives in _his_ hands and accept him as one of their own.

He was still a bloodthirsty, psychotic and slightly unhinged Mist...but with this, it was like they were proudly declaring he was _their_ Mist and they were not ashamed of it.

Rosethorn found him musing and let him curl up in her lap. Out of the three, Mukuro was the most hesitant to accept positive physical affection like hugs. At least publicly anyway.

He was like a great panther, one who had been hurt before and was less likely to trust as a result.

"Knut for your thoughts?"

Mukuro handed her the paperwork.

"Ah. Xanxus has been wanting to do this for months, but he wanted to do an unbiased assessment of your skill level first. It's not like you haven't earned the chance, and you've at least found an acceptable way to vent your anger and aggression at what happened to you in a way the Vindice won't get pissed over. That and Mammon said you were more than ready to take over most of the field work for them, so long as you had back up to keep you from going too overboard."

Mukuro leaned into the hand stroking his hair, head firmly in her lap on the couch.

"How am I supposed to feel about this?"

"Regardless of whether you accept this or not, this is your home. I know Belphegor will be thrilled once he finds out... you'll finally be able to go on real missions together," said Rosethorn.

Mukuro sighed, relaxing.

"Can I stay here and think it over?"

Meaning he wanted to nap a bit and think it through with a clear head first.

"Do you want a blanket or a wing?"

"Don't want dragon form," murmured Mukuro, cuddling against her. He slowly fell asleep on her leg as she summoned a thin blanket to lay on him.

A few hours later Mukuro left the Sun division...wearing a proper Varia uniform that also had a patch that declared him the secondary commander of the Mist division (I/E Mammon's eventual replacement) proudly stitched in full view on chest near the heart.

Belphegor was positively giddy when he saw it, and was bugging Mukuro for _weeks_.

* * *

"Explain to me again how exactly you convinced us to visit Japan during the one time of the year when paperwork is mandatory," asked Mukuro dryly.

"I'll second that question," said an amused Rosethorn.

"Ushishishi... I don't _do_ paperwork, Mammy handles most of yours and the Boss wants to properly bring the Shark peasant back into his old role without worrying about any jealously issues that might spring up. Besides, neither of you have had a proper vacation in over two years."

"Fair point," said Rosethorn. "Why Japan though?"

"There is a peasant who is good at making sushi," shrugged Belphegor. "And I haven't any any in months. Besides, there's a beach there and it _is_ summer."

Rosethorn snorted.

"Alright, let's see this sushi place of yours," said Rosethorn. "You're paying since you picked it."

"Welcome to TakeSushi!"

Right away Rosethorn liked the place. It had a nice, calming feel that had nothing to do with the fact the owner was an active Rain and obvious ex-assassin.

Mukuro cheerfully stuck with Belphegor while Rosethorn went shopping. Neither of them wanted to be stuck carrying bags around and Rosethorn had developed a love of fashion thanks to Luss.

However it was after she left the mall and was wandering around town that she spotted something that had her grin.

A baby Cloud fighting several yakuza and actually _winning_. The kid couldn't possibly be older than Mukuro and Bel.

An evil, hilarious idea occurred to her as she eyed the kid. The kid was clearly defending his territory from the yakuza trying to make their own claim on it and he looked like a decent fighter. He definitely had training from someone competent, which meant he might actually survive if she played with him.

The kid turned, and saw her. A feral grin that was all too familiar (she had seen a similar look on Mukuro's face when he saw a proper challenge) spread across his face.

"Carnivore."

"Want to play?" she asked, pulling out her weapon.

The grin widened with a pleased expression... clearly the poor kid was bored out of his mind with the locals.

The kid was in a very good mood and gave as good as he got. It had been a long time since she got to play with someone who actually knew what they were doing.

"Wao."

"What's your name kid?"

"Hibari Kyouya."

"Rosethorn," she said, holding out a hand. She could tell just by shaking it the kid was on the verge of going Active and was naturally strong. A wicked idea formed in her head. "How would you like to play with some other carnivores without giving them prior warning of your coming?"

The smirk on his face said volumes.

Rosethorn's boredom died the second she saw it. This was going to be hilarious.

 _A few hours later..._

Mukuro dodged without thinking, only to find a boy his own age with a pair of tonfas bearing down on him. Belphegor would have come to assist...except he was being held back by a cackling Rosethorn.

So this was one of her pranks then?

"I hope you give as good as the female carnivore, pineapple," said the boy.

Oh it was so on now. No one called him a pineapple and got away with it sane afterwards!

Belphegor looked at Rosethorn who was unbearably smug.

"Where did you find this peasant?"

"He was playing with some yakuza with a bored look on his face. I could tell right away he was a strong Cloud, and no one ever said we couldn't scout some new talent before they're Active," said Rosethorn smugly.

"Ushishishi... Mukuro looks like he's having fun," said Belphegor. Mukuro's look of annoyance was quickly turning into a grin of delight. It was rare to find anyone who could keep up with him, and Mammon always sniffed when they saw him using physical force instead of just straight illusions.

In the end, Rosethorn called the fight as a draw...mostly because she was getting hungry.

Hibari looked very pleased with this turn of events, more so because he didn't have to pay for dinner.

Rosethorn saw the darkly pleased expression on Mukuro's face and grinned.

"So Hibari-kun...how would you like to be Mukuro's playmate while we're in town? I'm sure he'd love to fight you if you're already getting bored with the local yakuza."

Seeing the baby Cloud perk up at the suggestion, an idea formed in her head in how to rope the kid later.

"In fact, our group offers training camps every summer and I'm sure Mukuro and several other carnivores would _love_ meeting you," said Rosethorn.

Xanxus would love this kid... he'd fit in with the Varia with terrifying ease, especially if his catchphrase was even remotely literal.

Hibari made a point of stalking Rosethorn and Mukuro for the next three days. He must have been _really_ bored and was definitely pleased to find other carnivores who didn't bat an eye at his habits or complain about the bruising.

He did seem openly interested in the way Rosethorn used her weapons...more to the point he was fascinated with the way she made the chain longer or shorter using her purple fire which she assured him he had as well. He would give his tonfas odd glances, as if trying to figure out how to upgrade his own weapons so that he could play with chains.

It was adorable, in her personal opinion. It was like she had accidentally stumbled across a half grown tiger who was caged by his surroundings just waiting for the opportunity to show his fangs and break free.

Hibari had been very, very pleased when he saw her animagus form. He had a wild grin on his face when he tried to "bite her to death" to the amusement of Mukuro and Belphegor who found the idea of a baby Cloud who wasn't even Active trying to beat Rosethorn.

He lost, badly, but the fact she was all too happy to let him try again without being condescending about it improved his mood.

* * *

"Well this is interesting," said a serene voice.

Rosethorn looked up from reading a book to find...an Arcobaleno?

She took a good look at him.

Red pacifier, Asian features, monkey...

"Are you by any chance Fon, the martial artist who's mastered over a hundred different styles?" she inquired.

Fon looked pleased that she didn't automatically ask if he was the Storm Arcobaleno. Then again she knew from experience Reborn and Mammon _hated_ being reminded of their cursed status rather than the titles they had fought tooth and nail to earn.

"You're the Varia Cloud officer."

"The Storm and the second for the Mist division are here as well. Viper is grudgingly respectful of your skills... I think they might have a crush on you," said Rosethorn with a conspirator's wink. Their tone was certainly different than when they spoke of Reborn or any of the others.

Fon's smile widened slightly into something closer to a smirk hearing that.

"Might I ask why you've been playing with my nephew?"

"Hibari-kun is your nephew?" said Rosethorn in open surprise. "That explains the training... he's very good."

Fon was rather pleased to hear such praise.

"As for why we've been 'playing'... well, have you seen how bored that poor kid is? He's been in dire need of some real competition or his skills are going to just stagnate," said Rosethorn. "Besides, it's hilarious to watch his expression when I make comments about how he's been flirting with Mukuro."

Fon chuckled darkly at that. He could very well imagine the indignant and slightly disgusted looks on Kyouya's face hearing that.

He cheerfully sat next to Rosethorn with a smirk on his face.

"So...is the Varia scouting him?"

"Would you rather the Triads tried to get their hands on him when he goes Active? And at the moment, no we're not scouting him as a potential member. It's bad enough that Mukuro and Bel are full members. I'd rather he graduate high school at the least, never mind that he would need to learn a few more languages to properly qualify. But I can at least give him the option of joining later when he's older, thus giving him some measure of protection from the lesser families trying to snatch up a powerful Cloud."

Fon relaxed considerably hearing that. He would honestly rather see his nephew in the Varia than chained by the Triads or some other family.

"Besides... considering how much Bel likes the sushi from the restaurant in town, I could easily come visit often and give him some proper training in how to use his Cloud flames when he finally goes Active."

"Thank you," said Fon sincerely. He found the woman ridiculously relaxing to be around. It was very strange.

"So... is it true you're a tea connoisseur? I swear that all that coffee has gone to the brains of the Italians, because it's nearly impossible to find anyone who appreciates a good cup of tea unless they're trying to perform a Japanese tea ceremony as a hobby," said Rosethorn.

Fon's eyes lit up at that.

"I might know a few good shops in town. If nothing else I know for a fact my nephew keeps the cabinet stocked."

"I say we enjoy a peaceful afternoon, don't you? Besides, I'd love to pick your brain for any interesting techniques I could play with when it comes to my tessen."

"I would be delighted," said Fon, accepting her silent offer of using her shoulder as a mode of transport. She was such a polite young woman!

Today was a very good day.


	12. Chapter 12

Belphegor, Mukuro and Hibari all took one look at Fon serenely drinking tea by the barrel with Rosethorn, before the trio all shared a look.

No way in hell were they interrupting Rosethorn when she had that look on her face. Especially when she was clearly picking Fon's knowledge of martial arts for new tricks to use with her tessen.

The three silently walked away.

"So now what?" asked Mukuro.

"The Prince is bored of playing with the Skylark... what else is there to do in town?" asked Belphegor.

Hibari honestly had no idea. These two were the closest thing he had come to having friends his own age, as sad as that was.

Suddenly a panicked cry filled the air, along with the mocking laughter of older boys.

Hibari smirked. Their boredom had just been dealt with...temporarily at least.

Within short order the bullies were dealt with and the skittish herbivore was rescued. He would have made a get away...except Hibari made the mistake of mentioning the boy's name in front of Belphegor and Mukuro. His _full_ name.

"Kufufufu... Did you just say Sawada? As in _Iemitsu_ Sawada?"

Tsunayoshi looked at the odd teen with the mismatched eyes and the rather terrifying blond next to him who was snickering with equally dark amusement.

"How do you know my dad?"

"Oh this is too hilarious. Not only do we run into Fon's nephew, but we've stumbled onto the hidden location of that idiot's civilian family!" cackled Mukuro. "Rosethorn is going to _love_ this."

Tsuna was clearly terrified out of his wits as Mukuro and Belphegor took him to see Rosethorn. They had made it clear he didn't have a choice in the matter.

"Wait... this is that moron's kid?" said Rosethorn in obvious disbelief.

Tsuna squirmed, but gratefully accepted the tea. He found it more than a little weird to see a smaller, and considerably friendlier version of Hibari with a monkey.

"You know my dad?" he asked curiously, hiding partially behind his tea cup.

"Blond, scruffy appearance and an obnoxious attitude with the inability to actually _listen_ to the opinion of others?" asked Rosethorn. Tsuna cautiously nodded. "We know him. Complete jackass... I don't know why Lal Mirch bothers to put up with him. If I were her I would have strangled him in his sleep years ago. What do you know about your father?"

Tsuna flinched.

"I know he married my mother a year and a half before I was born, that he claims he loves her but he never remembers important dates like birthdays or anniversaries on time if ever and that he always gets drunk off his ass on the rare occasion he actually deigns to visit. And that his cover stories for why he's never around are so ridiculous that it's obvious he can't lie at all," said Tsuna in a flat tone, almost like commenting on the weather.

Rosethorn frowned.

"You're kidding. That jackass goes on and on about his wife and son, but he's never around?"

"Last time I saw him was about two and a half years ago and he told my mother he was off 'to become a star'," said Tsuna bitterly.

Now Fon was frowning.

Rosethorn patted Tsuna on the head.

"I hate to break it to you kid, but that idiot has been pretty much living it up in Italy while your poor mother is left alone here. I know for a fact he often goes out drinking with his subordinates... there were also unsubstantiated rumors he got one of his aides pregnant a while back, but no one bothered to find out if it was true."

Tsuna flinched hearing that, and looked incredibly bitter.

Rosethorn had an evil idea.

"I wonder if the Boss would approve of sending the mooks to stalk the jackass for photos?" she mused.

Belphegor snickered.

"I sense mischief."

"Well think about it. How would your poor mother react if she had proof of that idiot's infidelity and lying? She's probably very lonely with her husband gone all the time, and I doubt you've had an easy time of it with how family oriented this country is."

"He is one of the most consistently bullied students...despite the number of times I've bitten various bullies," commented Hibari.

Tsuna turned to look at him wide eyed with shock. The fact that the demon prefect _knew_ of him was a major surprise.

Tsuna stuck around for a bit, at least enough to finish his tea, but left after that. He seemed resigned about the fact his father had been lying to him for years and hurting his mother with his absence.

Fon noticed the look on Rosethorn's face though.

"What is it?"

"There's something odd about his Flames. I can tell he's active, but it's like there's a block on them," she said. "It was strange...it felt a lot like there was something deliberately strangling his soul and not letting any of his Flames to be used."

"Exactly what do you know of the boy?" asked Fon of his nephew.

"Very clumsy, consistently at the bottom of the class and unmotivated. Has a very strange attractant effect on bullies, both adult and those his own age. I've seen people go after him even with more attractive targets around," said Hibari.

Fon frowned.

"That sounds far too much like he might possibly have Sky Flames, and some idiot placed an inferior Seal on them," said Fon.

"There's different types?" asked Rosethorn.

"Skies require a very specific form of sealing, and even then it's never actually been _used_. Generally speaking if a Sky has gone that far, it's easier to simply kill them and their Guardians. I've never actually heard of someone attempting to seal one."

Rosethorn sipped her tea.

"Well Sawada is certainly stupid enough to _try_ it, and likely wouldn't think of the consequences after. Which gives me an idea... How would you like a guarantee of me visiting in the near future long enough for us to 'play' again and possibly get some upgrades to your preferred weapons?"

"I'm listening," said Hibari.

"Keep an eye on the kid, at least until we figure things out. In exchange I'll get you an upgrade to your tonfas that will include a few surprises like chains so you can play with your Cloud flames. If I'm right, then we can really ruin that idiot's day and make things more interesting for you later. Before I forget, take this."

Hibari took a card with an emblem on it.

"What is this?"

"Proof that you're being actively scouted by the Varia," said Fon bluntly. "If you have that, then even if you go Active you have the right to refuse any invitations. It also means the Triads would be far more leery of going after you later, if only because keeping you a freelancer means they might have a chance to gain contacts within the group."

"It means you wouldn't be chained the same way Fon is," said Rosethorn. "The Varia has a strict policy of only accepting the strong... weakness is more likely to get you eaten alive and killed than encouraged."

Hibari certainly liked the idea of that.

* * *

Daniela frowned at the question.

"You think you found a _sealed_ Sky?" she repeated.

"Is there any reason why Sawada's son might have Sky Flames? I know the jackass is Active, but I've never figured out the type."

"He's a Sky... more than that he's of the Primo's bloodline. His son could have easily inherited Sky Flames from his side of the family. But sealing the boy? That makes absolutely no sense at all... Skies are cherished and encouraged to find Guardians, not sealed."

"So if there was a possibility Sawada sealed his _Flame Active_ son..."

"Then it seems we'll have to make a visit to Japan and remove it. Sealing a Sky isn't healthy for the victim. There's a reason why they're more likely to be killed outright than sealed," said Daniela.

"How's Andromeda working for you?"

"She is a true delight. It's been far too long since I had someone I could share baby pictures with," said Daniela.

That, and Andromeda was just strong enough to act as Daniela's new Mist. It wasn't a full bond, but it was enough to skirt the laws of Omerta.

"Well in that case I'm sure we could draft a small contract so your idiot son won't get suspicious...and we could bring pictures! I'm sure Iemitsu's wife would love a chance to share some of her son!"

Daniela beamed at the idea.

A week later they were back in Japan...this time with a less than happy Daniela, an amused Andromeda and a slightly fussy Teddy.

Tsuna was made the unofficial babysitter of the precocious metamorph. Fortunately he didn't do more than yelp once when Teddy showed off his trick and soon enough the two were playing in Tsuna's room. Apparently he had a knack for handling small children.

"I cannot believe how foolish that boy is being. Honestly, while I approve at least _marrying_ before having a child, leaving his wife alone for years at a time is ridiculous," said Daniela exasperated.

Nana had a tired smile. She had believed them at once when Daniela had shown up and explained who she was. Namely that she was the mother of the old man Iemitsu had brought home once when Tsuna was much younger and she had been appalled when informed that Iemitsu had been leaving his wife alone for _years_ at a time.

Family takes care of each other, and Iemitsu was doing a very poor job of it. A situation Daniela was determined to rectify immediately.

If for no other reason than to give her son a good hiding for the sheer amount of stupidity he had displayed, and give Iemitsu a very stern lecture for his behavior.

Head of CEDEF and External Adviser or not, there was no excuse for this sort of behavior.

Rosethorn was playing with Hibari for a few hours. He was very pleased seeing the female carnivore back in town.

Tsuna officially liked Daniela and Andromeda. They were like the grandmother's he never had and didn't treat him like a kid.

Andromeda mostly treated him like a second grandson... her daughter had been just as clumsy as Tsuna at his age, but far more adventurous. She was also very loyal and the woman missed her dearly.

* * *

 _In an out of the way location..._

Tsuna wasn't sure how to feel about Daniela poking him with her finger while it was on fire. Fortunately it was over very quickly and a strange sense of _relief_ filled his body. Like something had been holding him back for a very long time, and was finally allowed to breathe properly for the first time in years.

Sure he passed out, but that was apparently normal.

Daniela was _not happy_ with her son. She knew she had raised him better, and this sort of idiocy did far more damage to the poor boy than good! Timoteo had better have a damn good explanation for this sort of foolishness.

Fortunately for Tsuna, there were ways to hide the fact his Sky Flames were now freed without dragging the poor boy into the mafia so soon.

More importantly, it gave Daniela a chance to deal with her son and Iemitsu without either of them realizing she had unsealed the poor child.

Rosethorn cast a basic fidelius over Tsuna. The charm would keep most Flame sensitive people from registering the fact that Tsuna was a Sky without interfering with his ability to gather Guardians or leave him a complete mess like the seal had. And only Tsuna could tell people what the secret was, however he wasn't likely to do so considering he had a panic attack when Daniela explained about the mafia.

Tsuna couldn't help but feel like his life was finally looking up. Sure, odds were he'd get dragged into the underworld at some point, but Rosethorn had at given him her contact information so he had someone to talk to about being dropped in the middle of something so life changing without any warning.

Finding out the violent and strange woman was in fact a former "Savior" of an entire society in the UK had been a shock...mostly because she had been so quick to join a group of elite assassins rather than play off her fame or stick around her old life.

However when she explained the burdens of being famous and so well known, Tsuna had understood.

She never _asked_ to be famous. She had basically had all the hero-worship and admiration shoved on her for surviving something her parents didn't, and everyone had an unrealistic expectation of her as a result. Add on top of that the fact her 'mentor' had basically tried to force her into being a willing martyr for people who should have gotten their act together and dealt with the problem themselves but had relied on children to do most of the dirty work instead...well, Tsuna could completely understand why she had left.

The fact her training had left her unable to properly rejoin normal life without a lot of trial and error, never mind her own instincts, it only made sense she'd be drawn to the most dysfunctional family in the mafia.

The way she talked about the Varia, Tsuna could fully believe it was one big, dysfunctional family. They might be assassins, but it didn't make them any less human.

Just look at Belphegor and Mukuro! They were violent sociopaths, people who would never fully "fit in" with civilians and yet they had found a home that was uniquely suited for them!

Tsuna couldn't help but feel sorry for Hibari. As far as he knew, no one had ever really bothered to try and befriend him. Everyone was simply too afraid of him, or were put off by his anti-social personality.

Now that he thought about it, he could think of a few people who were outsiders, despite being fairly popular or well known. They had people around them, but they always felt like they were outliers in their own group.


	13. Chapter 13

Rosethorn had to chuckle a bit, and typed in a cheerful quip to the _formerly_ skittish Tsuna.

The boy had started to speak up a bit more, partly because of Daniela's positive influence (she had moved to Namimori, though her son had no idea that it was purely to insure Tsuna got the training that he should have had years ago) and because of the fact that seal was gone.

 _Brier_Rose:_ Should I be upset that you're poaching Hibari from me?

 _Natsu:_ I didn't mean to poach him!

 _Brier_Rose:_ relax kitten. It's better for Elements to have a Sky they can rest in, and it's a _good_ thing that you're taking initiative to fill your Sky on your own terms rather than follow the usual method of having Elements shoved on you. It seems to be an unfortunate trait of most mafia families to fill a Sky with Elements that might not even fit at all purely for political reasons. Like an arranged marriage without bothering to get the opinion of the parties that it effects the most.

 _Natsu:_ I never thought of it like that.

 _Brier_Rose:_ there's a reason I've hidden the fact I'm a Sky secondary. The last thing I want is people trying to get to my fiancee through me simply because of my Flames. Remember, Guardians or 'Elements' are more than just guard dogs. They're loyal allies you can share things with and trust to have your back in a pinch. Real friends should be able to tell you when you're being an idiot or tell you that you're wrong without caring about how you'd take it. If they can't do something like that, then you might need to re-evaluate whether they're really your friends.

 _Natsu:_ ...I think you've given me an idea on how to approach the star of the baseball team. I've noticed that everyone is always pressuring him to practice more to win games, but the team doesn't really practice nearly as much as claim. It's like they're relying on him to win for them.

 _Brier_Rose:_ there you have it. If you can't trust your friends to tell you the blunt truth, then maybe you should find better ones. You have an honest heart and you genuinely care about others. Use it and you can earn loyal allies that wouldn't hesitate to drop everything when you really need it, even if things don't turn out well.

A few days later Tsuna wrote back. The baseball star (who ironically enough happened to be the son of the same sushi chef Belphegor liked so much) had been so surprised someone had spoken up about how his so-called teammates were treating him that he had begun a tentative friendship with Tsuna. Within a few weeks, Tsuna had harmonized with his new Rain.

Takeshi was just happy to have someone who actually saw _him_ and not the star baseball player. To have a friend who openly told him he was being an idiot and overdoing it with his practicing before he hurt himself. One who's friendship wasn't completely dependent on his ability to play baseball or his fickle popularity among the other kids.

Tsuna had already slowly begun earning the respect and loyalty of Hibari simply for being persistent and not running away from a carnivore. The fact he didn't condemn Hibari's habits, such as biting annoying people to death and quietly healed him up the rare times he was hurt had earned his respect. That he didn't shy away from learning how to fight had gained the Cloud's interest enough that he was slowly starting to drift towards Tsuna's gentle Sky.

Tsuna already had his eyes on a Sun. Ryohei was loud, enthusiastic, and completely obsessed with boxing. He was very lonely, as a lot of their classmates preferred to avoid the loud boxer than actually get to know him.

 _Natsu:_ so when's the wedding?

 _Brier_Rose:_ don't worry... you and your Elements are going to be invited. I need _someone_ to be on the bride's side after all, since I cut off most of my family. It's already going to drive them nuts that I got married and didn't invite them.

And that was _before_ she unleashed her soon-to-be husband on the Weasleys. As much as she loved them, there was no way she could invite them without it leaking back to England and possibly bringing the fake wolves down on Italy.

She had absolutely no intention of ever going back, much less letting them use her a second time.

* * *

Tsuna nervously adjusted his formal attire. Next to him Takeshi and Ryohei were quietly discussing some sort of game. Hibari had disappeared almost immediately after they reached the church... from the sounds outside, Hibari was likely testing Rosethorn's husband before the actual wedding.

So long as he didn't rough the man up too much, Tsuna was content to ignore the fact Hibari was fighting again. He had more or less resigned himself to the fact Hibari was very much a battle nut.

As long as his Cloud never went after civilians, Tsuna would look the other way and patch the older boy up whenever he got hurt. Fighting was as much a part of Hibari as his beloved tonfas. It was practically in his blood... it wasn't Hibari's fault that he was born in the wrong time period.

If this had been feudal Japan, he would have fit right in with the fighting and likely risen to great status as a warrior. Instead he was stuck in a 'civilized' time when fighting was frowned upon and highly discouraged. Especially the way he fought.

Hibari came back in a ruffled outfit which Tsuna absently fixed. He looked rather pleased... clearly Rosethorn's fiance was good enough to make even Hibari happy.

(Upon seeing Xanxus for the first time, he quickly figured out why... the man was practically a dragon in his own right.)

Tsuna had to fight the urge to glare at the old man on the other side of the church. Despite the fact he was Xanxus' adopted father, Rosethorn had _gleefully_ shoved him and his guardian to the back. Daniela had fought the urge to cackle at the look on people's faces when they realized this fact.

The wedding was interesting enough, though Tsuna was rather nervous standing next to Daniela when her son approached her.

It was rather insulting that the old man didn't recognize the boy who's life he had almost ruined.

"And who's this young lad?"

"Tsunayoshi Sawada. Iemitsu's _son._ And you had better have a damn good explanation for what I found when he was brought to my attention," said Daniela. This wasn't the mischievous and playful grandmother Tsuna was familiar with... this was Donna Ottavo and she was pretty damn pissed with her son.

Timoteo's eyes widened considerably at the name, before he looked harder at Tsuna. Tsuna glared right back at him, while his Guardians (specifically Ryohei and Takeshi, with Hibari coming in as an afterthought) quickly began drifting towards him as back-up.

"Mother... I..."

"Oh please, enlighten me why you've continued to allow Iemitsu's incompetence to continue," she said sweetly. It sent shivers of 'doom' down his spine.

Timoteo winced openly.

* * *

 _With Xanxus..._

The newly married Varia Sky was positively grinning. His 'father' was getting his head bitten off by a less than pleased Daniela and best of all Iemitsu was next on her shit list.

Daniela had gone over the raw data concerning the Vongola with a fine toothed comb after the near loss of Enrico, and she went straight past pissed to apoplectic with fury.

The famiglia she had held together through war time, even though the way people disparaged her because of her gender, and had paid in blood, sweat and tears to keep strong despite the amount of crap she had to deal with was quickly falling apart at the seams under the leadership of her son.

Timoteo was quickly turning into a very poor leader, and Iemitsu's incompetence was infecting the Vongola as a whole. CEDEF had been as feared as the Varia when she was Donna... now it was the butt of many jokes of those who specialized in Intelligence everywhere. A complete disgrace that would have had Alaude ashamed of the group he had created to help the Vongola without being part of the greater whole.

Needless to say Daniela was _not happy_. So much so that she was seriously considering re-taking control until she felt that one of her grandsons or hell, even _Tsuna,_ was capable of leading the Vongola with anything close to actual competence.

Either way, she was not going to stand for the family to fall apart because her son wasn't listening to his people. The way he had badly mismanaged _Xanxus_ was proof he needed someone to give him a firm reality check before things imploded.

Starting with removing Iemitsu from his positions and putting him somewhere he could do far less damage as a whole to the Vongola.

"So how _did_ you find Sawada's spawn?"

The kid was a fluffy kitten that looked like a mini Primo.

"Actually Mukuro and the others found him. The second they heard the name Sawada they brought him over to where I was. Needless to say I found the chance to royally screw over that jackass too tempting to resist. I brought in Daniela when I realized there was something off about his Flames," commented Rosethorn.

"...Do I want to know?"

"They were bored and he was being bullied," replied Rosethorn.

"The old fucker looks like he's facing you in dragon form, pissed off," said Xanxus with open delight. This was fucking hilarious and he knew Mammon was taking multiple pictures.

The "Oh shit!" look on Timoteo's face was hysterical. He might have it immortalized for when he was having a crappy day.

He couldn't wait to see the ripples of Daniela lighting a real fire under the old fucker's ass for being an idiot. Thanks to the potions and magical healing, she had at _least_ another decade left in her, if not three. She was quite looking forward to spoiling any great grandchildren rotten...she had already resigned herself to the fact Enrico, Massimo and Federico were in no hurry and the only likely source of said little ones was likely to be Xanxus and Rosethorn.

And best of all, both of them were more than happy to act as co-conspirators to any chaos she might stir up, especially if their victim was Timoteo or Iemitsu. She wouldn't be shocked in the least if Rosethorn harmonized with Reborn...the two were very much alike.

* * *

Iemitsu's Intuition had been going off ever since Xanxus got married. He mostly had it pegged as the Varia Sky having knocked up his Cloud, hence why he had to marry the girl in a hurry. Xanxus would never dare consider leaving a woman carrying his kid in a lurch...let alone have the poor kid be stuck with the title of bastards for the rest of his life.

And then he found out the hard way (Lal apparently had prior warning...she had been carrying a camera around for days, just for this event) what really happened.

"What?" said Iemitsu in a strangled voice.

"You're fired as Head of CEDEF and being removed from the post of External Adviser," said the woman flatly. She was Daniela's current Mist and had a no-nonsense attitude to go along with her outdated sense of fashion.

"By what right..." started Iemitsu...before he found out the rest of it.

Nono had been forced to step down and Donna Ottavo had retaken control of the Vongola. It was unusual, but not unheard of for something like this to happen, especially if the former leader could prove some major mismanagement on the part of the current leader.

It was one of the reasons why some Families had a habit of making sure the previous leaders were _"permanently retired"_ before they even remotely took full control of their groups.

That Daniela was able to retake control of the Vongola was just a side-effect of the fact that she was already accepted by the rings...and had discreetly gained the backing of most of the Alliance on the matter. Apparently they were all very unhappy with Timoteo as a leader and wanted someone they considered more 'competent'.

"May I ask _why_ I'm being replaced?" he demanded irate.

"For starters the mismanagement of a bloodline Vongola Sky and the mishandling of the organization you were entrusted with."

"I had nothing to do with any of the heirs!" said Iemitsu in protest.

"I'm talking about your son, you imbecile," she snapped. He paled in horror.

"What?!"

"Daniela was alerted to the fact you've been leaving your _wife_ alone for years on end without properly staying in contact and went to investigate whether that particular tidbit was true. She was beyond furious when she found out you used an inferior seal on an Active Sky. Your son was tormented and abused by his fellow students and more than a few teachers because of the fact that the seal didn't even begin to cover Sky Attraction and left him a complete mess. His motor control was shot to hell, as was his ability to retain information...he was the most bullied student in his school district because you didn't want to do your duty and _train him_ ," she snapped.

"I didn't want him in the mafia!" protested Iemitsu.

"He could have been kept safe without bringing him to the attention of the Cosa Nostra in a minor position. There is a reason there's no recorded attempts of sealing an Active Sky," said the woman bluntly.

Iemitsu sagged in his chair. Everything was going all wrong and he couldn't see a single way to fix this.

Then he glared at Lal who looked positively smug.

"What the hell are you so happy about?"

"I'm just glad karma is finally working again properly," she replied flippantly. Her smirk turned a bit more feral and cold. "Do you have _any_ idea what a pain in the ass it is cleaning up after your damn messes and keeping this place from imploding from your incompetence? CEDEF had become the butt of many jokes in the intelligence community and your crappy management of it has only allowed things to fester under the surface! We've had two branch offices that have gone rogue in the past three years and you've always brushed off the news like it was nothing!"

Lal had been holding this back for _years_ , and now that Iemitsu was on the way out she was finally able to vent her frustration and anger properly without holding back.

And she had a lot of it to share. Iemitsu was positively cringing at the end of it, unaware that one of his best men had been that pissed off with his behavior.

Worst of all, Lal had been keeping records and had shared some of them with his wife. Pictures of him with other females and not wearing his wedding band to show he was off the market, or the DNA test he had no clue she had taken between him and Basil, revealing the fact that the young Rain "orphan" was actually his son.

If he was still married when everything started to boil over, he would be very surprised. It was a miracle that Daniela hadn't ordered him "iced" in a permanent manner, instead of kicking him out of power.

She certainly wasn't pulling any punches as it was.


End file.
